Olivia Apps: 'We rewatched the World Cup final - our team is better now'

When Canada play England at Sandy Park this Saturday, it will be 357 days since the two teams met in the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 final. It is a day that will live in the memory of rugby supporters for plenty of years, as 81,885 supporters piled in to Allianz Stadium to conclude the best-attended and most successful edition of the tournament ever.

While the memory is bright for many, for Canada, the memory carries a little more darkness. Beaten 33-13 in West London the side left the field knowing that they did not live up to the potential they had shown in the lead-up to the final.

Before the two teams meet for the first time since that day, Olivia Apps freely admits that she has rewatched her team’s loss. More than once.

Clips of the final have been played in plenty of reviews. More recently the scrum-half watched the full game with Canada’s leadership group. Each viewing has been done with the intention of aiding Canada’s development.

In the 12 months since their Women’s Rugby World Cup final loss, Canada head coach Kévin Rouet has given Test debuts to 10 players. Three of those debuts came last week in the team’s 64-26 win against Scotland in their WXV Global Series opener. Both Charity Williams and Savannah Bauder dotted down in their 15-a-side debuts. Lizzie Gibson, who got over the whitewash twice in Edinburgh, only got her first cap in April.

Already, in a short space of time, Apps believes Canada have made great strides – and are a better team than they were this time last year.

“It’s like the start of a new chapter right now,” Apps told RugbyPass. “We took the year to really accept the World Cup final and take every single learning from that game that we could have. There’s not much emotion for me anymore because I feel like we’re a completely different team this year than we were a year ago.

“We [Canada’s leadership group] rewatched the World Cup final last week and I was like, holy shit our team is so much better now. Our team is so much better than we were last year. Which I think is a big confidence boost. It is not the same team and I’m excited to start a new chapter with this group and not be afraid of the World Cup final.”

Canada will play England three times this year, starting this weekend in Devon. A trip to La Rochelle to take on France will follow before a fortnight break, then there will be back-to-back Test matches against the Red Roses. One fixture at Toronto’s BMO Field. Another in the country’s capital, Ottawa.

The somewhat divided three-Test series has certainly caught the attention of both camps. Upon announcing his team to take on Canada, Red Roses boss John Mitchell highlighted the “rivalry” between the two nations.

For this weekend’s fixture Apps has kept her starting spot. Utilised off the bench last year at Allianz Stadium, she now has the chance to direct play from the first whistle as Canada aim to stop the Red Roses’ 39-match unbeaten run and stun a sold-out crowd in Exeter.

“It feels crazy that it has been a year – that is crazy,” Apps said. “I’m happy that we get to play them more than once a year. I’m really pleased about that and seeing how these next three Tests go against them.

“I kind of wish that we just had three times in a row – like we played France this weekend. Kévin has his own plan of how he sees these three Tests and managing players. Everything we do this year is to beat England. It’s no secret.

“Everything we are doing on this tour [is to beat England]. The Scotland game is to prep for England. The France game is to prep us for our home games against England. Everything is focused on that.”

Apps and her teammates will come up against a Red Roses team with a clear desire to improve after their last performance. Even though John Mitchell’s side were 48-15 winners in Salford, the world champions had a slow start against the Wallaroos.

At half-time, the world’s ninth-ranked team led the Red Roses 10-5. It was the first time that England had trailed at the midway point since 2020, as the Wallaroos’ uncompromising and unrelenting physicality made it impossible for the world champions to gain a steady foothold in the game for 40 minutes.

Canada can certainly take immense positives from Australia’s performance. It also evokes memories of Canada’s Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 semi-final win against the Black Ferns at Ashton Gate 12 months ago, as their own relentlessness, tied in with a splash of attacking brilliance sank the six-time tournament champions.

“What we saw from Australia was – I feel sad for them – they didn’t give them any respect in certain moments,” she said. “I feel like, certain times when you’re playing a top tier nation, you respect them too much. You give them too much space.

“You could see Australia being very physical, very dominant, putting pressure on the kind of structure they want to play and forcing errors. For us, seeing Australia’s ball-out mindset, it gave us a real clear picture. And it is something we can do. That is something we know we’re capable of doing.”

Apps arrives at Sandy Park in fine form. Last week, her two tries and two assists against Scotland earned her the Mitsubishi Electric Player of the Week.

That recognition is just the 27-year-old’s latest. At the conclusion of her first season with JAECOO Premiership Women’s Rugby club Saracens, she had a league winners’ medal to keep her silver medal from the 2024 Olympic Games company. She had also been named the league’s Player of the Year, for which she received a Tiffany necklace.

Upon arriving in North London, Apps told RugbyPass she wanted to “experience something new” after several years of splitting her time between the Canada Sevens programme and Test rugby.

Last season the scrum-half made 14 appearances in England’s top flight, scoring 11 tries, beating 50 defenders and carrying for 877 metres. She was also involved with Jocelyn Barrieau’s sevens squad for various stages of the HSBC SVNS Series and HSBC SVNS World Championship campaign.

“I didn’t think the award ceremony was going to be an actual thing,” Apps said. “I thought it was going to be something like, vote for your player of the season and then it would be announced on Instagram. Then there was an award ceremony and I was like, this is kind of bougie.

“It’s the first time in my career that I’ve been acknowledged like that. That was really cool. It’s kind of weird for me to talk about, it feels awkward to talk about yourself, but I did get some messages from people saying that going into the PWR and being a Canadian and getting Player of the Year is something that I should be proud of.

“PWR is for the England players and England players are very much celebrated. That really stuck to me; feeling proud to be Canadian in that league. I feel like we’re getting more of the credit we deserve. I felt really good to put us on the map more in that sense.”

Time in England has led to another change for Apps. A lot of England players were once relatively unknown to her. Now, Red Roses players are teammates and regular opponents.

Last season was the first time Apps had played club rugby. Up to her Saracens debut against Harlequins last September, she had only ever worn the red of Canada.

Now a number of England players are counted as friends. Including this weekend’s fly-half, Zoe Harrison, who Apps formed a formidable partnership with last term as Saracens were crowned champions of England for a 16th time.

Like many of her international teammates, Apps has called England home for the European league season. She believes that time alongside her biggest Test rivals has given them confidence. Even if it has added a different dynamic to the fixture.

“It’s different,” the 27-year-old said. “Before, they were just names on a team sheet. Now they’re people that I play with or that I played against last season. It just takes the mystique of the Red Roses players. You think that, for some reason, because they’re number one in the world, they must have something that a Canadian rugby player doesn’t. Now that I’ve seen them and I’ve seen my Canadian rugby players, I understand where we are at. I know exactly where we’re at.

“It also adds a bit of confidence. It’s nice to feel prepared. Like, I know how Zoe Harrison ticks. It is a nice, different dynamic that I wish all the Canadians could experience.”