'It feels great' - Schell reacts to her six-try outing in York

“I don’t think I’ve scored that many international tries in my life.”

Julia Schell had scored three tries across her first 26 international appearances. Against Fiji in Canada’s 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup opener, the 29-year-old dotted down six times in the space of 22 minutes in the second half to get the tournament hopefuls off to the best possible start.

At times the full-back found it effortless to make her way over the try line as Canadian attacking flair subdued Pacific Islander passion.

Her efforts contributed to the 65-7 victory at York Community Stadium, in which Sophie de Goede, Gillian Boag, Caroline Crossley, Alysha Corrigan and Karen Paquin also crossed the whitewash.

“Someone in the stand said before the first one, ‘200 bucks for a try’,” Schell laughed.“I have to try and find him. It feels great.”

When asked about Schell’s exploits, Canada head coach Kévin Rouet grinned.

An assistant coach when the full-back made her international debut, the Frenchman clearly knows how to get the best out of the Ontario native.

Even if he gets proven wrong in the process.

“I’m happy for her,” Rouet said. “She’s a great person and she’s a great player.

“I joked with her because at half-time I said, ‘you need to win your 1v1s, and she joked because she’s like ‘I’m going to prove you wrong’. So, she did.”

“I love proving Kévin wrong,” Schell grinned. “If he says win your 1v1s, I will do that. And I’ll do it again.”

As statement performances go Canada’s was perfect.

Less than 24 hours after the Red Roses’ 11-try rout of the USA Women’s Eagles at the Stadium of Light, the Canucks had one of their own less than 80 miles down the road.

Player of the Match Julia Schell took over for Canada, say no more.#RugbyWorldCup2025 | #Rugby

Read what we learnt ⤵️https://t.co/T4X4S98rpb

— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) August 23, 2025

Re-establishing their credentials as genuine contenders to the Black Ferns and tournament hosts, England, for the World Cup trophy.

It is a stark difference for the Rouet’s North Americans, who have regularly competed in the top tier of Test rugby, but never regularly competed for the biggest prizes.

Following their fourth-place finish at the 2021 World Cup in New Zealand, the side have climbed up to second in the World Rugby rankings thanks to a string of strong performances and a landmark first victory over the six-time world champions Black Ferns.

Now in the throes of a tournament that could define Canadian rugby for years to come, their head coach hopes that their success against the Fijians can be the first domino on the run to success.

“It’s important for the confidence,” Rouet said. “We have a group who’s learning to be number two in the world and it’s new for us.

“I think it’s like building the confidence to see to see that we can deliver, we can score 11 tries if we want.”

For several weeks Schell and her teammates have also experienced the added focus of being a favourite.

But instead of shirking or ignoring it the side have embraced it fully.

“We love the quote ‘pressure is a privilege’,” Schell said. “I feel like sometimes we feel that, but then sometimes we’re still – I would say it’s less wanting to prove people wrong and just want to do it for us because we know that everything, we have is what we need to do something pretty crazy.

“We’re just excited to be here together and to do this together and having that belief has been huge for us.”

Next up for Canada is Wales at Salford Community Stadium. They take on a Welsh side that are already in need of a win to keep any hope of reaching the knockouts after a 38-8 loss to Scotland on Saturday afternoon.

Canada will have had a watchful eye on Manchester ahead of their clash with Fiji and know that their final game of the group stages against Scotland could be influential in deciding their quarter-final tie.

Due to come up against a number of their Premiership Women’s Rugby teammates, there will be a familiar feel to Pool B proceedings in Manchester and Exeter.

“It’ll be good,” Schell said. “I think we will see a little bit more structure with those two teams.

“We play against a lot of them week in and week out, that calms the nerves a little but when you know people’s tendencies.

“When you’re going in against Fiji, they’re going to bring out something crazy. They love their offloads. It will definitely be a change of pace, but it’ll bring a new challenge, and we are all definitely looking forward to it.”

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