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From being like water (we’ll come to that later) to having world class players across the pitch, Canada have done everything they can to ensure that 2025 is their year at the Rugby World Cup.
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Beaten finalists in 2014 and semi-finalists in 2021, the North Americans have always impressed and dazzled on the biggest stage of all. But never has there ever been deep belief that it could happen. Until now.
This year’s World Cup has, at times, been spoken about as a two horse race. In fairness, the reasons for that are fairly clear. The Black Ferns are back-to-back World Cup winners. The Red Roses are on a run of 27 matches unbeaten.
But Canada are very much the third team in this race.
Currently World Rugby’s second-ranked team, Kévin Rouet’s band of Canadians have almost quietly circled Saturday 27th September in the calendar as they aim to win the tournament for the very first time. And, honestly, you would not be surprised if they did it.
In 2024 the side stunned the world when they beat New Zealand for the first time in their history, lifted the Pacific Four Series and then finished second at WXV 1.
At World Rugby’s end of year awards, their captain Alex Tessier was nominated for Women’s 15s Player of the Year and took her place in the Women’s 15s Dream Team alongside the indomitable Laetitia Royer and Sophie de Goede. In RugbyPass’ recent Top 50 campaign, seven Canadian players appeared on the list.
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As breakout years go it was a pretty good one. All this without the benefits of centralised contracts with Rugby Canada or even the same amount of time together as other nations. They do it their own way. And they are World Cup contenders.
But to really highlight how the North Americans have put themselves in this position, six paces from greatness, here is a look at just what sets the side apart from the chasing pack.
BE WATER
A big part of what has allowed Canada to put themselves firmly in the hunt for silverware is a book.
Be Water, My Friend: The True Teachings of Bruce Lee is a comprehensive look at the teachings of renowned martial artist, actor, director and philosopher Bruce Lee, as told by his daughter, Shannon.
The words were spoken into the world by Lee on the Pierre Berton Show in 1971, on the precipice of his Hollywood breakthrough and just two years before his untimely death in 1973.
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Its foundations can be found in Hong Kong, where Lee had been told by his martial arts teacher, Yip Man, to go home and not practice for a week. It was an unbearably long time for Lee, who one day took a boat onto Hong Kong Harbour and after a while drifting on the South China sea, he punched the water.
“I struck it with all my might – yet it was not wounded,” he later wrote in an essay. “I then tried to grasp a handful of it but this proved impossible.
“This water, the softest substance in the world, which could be contained in the smallest jar, only seemed weak.
“In reality it could penetrate the hardest substance in the world.”
And that’s what Kévin Rouet wanted from his Canada team. To adapt to their surroundings seamlessly, find their own way and take down the toughest teams in the world.
A sprinkling of world class players and coaching knowhow and Canada could secretly ruin England (or New Zealand’s) party.
Of course, Be Water, My Friend, has offered much more. Across its 229 pages the book teaches more practical lessons on finding neutrality, choiceless awareness, constant learning, embracing process, fluidity, inner strength and plenty more. Because as much as all those things are good lessons in life, they also seem like pretty good traits for an elite sports team too.
These are all features that be seen strewn across this Canadian outfit. From the way they can faultlessly unpick opponents with attacking moves that pack a lasting punch, how they seem unphased when things don’t go their way or when the squad is rotated there is no dip in performance.
It is an attitude on par with the Black Ferns’ lore or even the Red Roses business-like, clinical approach. Maybe it is even superior.
Around camp the phrase ‘be water’ is bandied around plenty. Through doing so it grounds the group, refocuses them of their shared objective and reinforces the collective buy-in.
By introducing Be Water, My Friend to his squad Rouet has not only introduced the mentality he wants his squad to embody, but lessons for life too and that common point of reference for each player. That creation of a collective is a powerful thing.
You can see it in the way that players have drifted effortlessly from Olympic silver medal success in sevens rugby to the 15-a-side game. It has also allowed Quebecois pair Laetitia Royer and Alex Tessier play the best rugby of their careers, or for Karen Paquin to return to international rugby after a two year break with ease.
As metaphors go, it is pretty perfect. But it is in practice that being like water has really come to life.
UNLEASHED ON THE PITCH
World class players have never been an issue for Canada. Because on top of the aforementioned Alex Tessier, Laetitia Royer and Sophie de Goede, the team’s World Cup squad also boasts the likes of Justine Pelletier, Emily Tuttosi, McKinley Hunt, DaLeaka Menin and Gabrielle Senft (just to name a few) who have all plied their trade in England or France, it has always been more the case of finding a way of playing that has suited the side best.
What Rouet opted for was a very Canadian solution. Because in a country as vast as Canada, that encapsulates so many different cultures, he rolled it all into one. In the past the side have been asked to play with total structure. But others prefer to cut loose with ball-in-hand.
‘Be Water’ can in some ways be seen as a key principle in what the side have created. In many ways it sees Gallic flair combined with basic structure. Players have often commented that at times they don’t even know what they are going to do. Bit more often than not they make it count.
“He’s not trying to make his players into players they are not,” Alex Tessier said of her head coach. “Everybody has their own unique style.
“He’s always found a way to utilise what has in a group of players and very good at bringing the best out of all the individuals we have what we have.
“We’re really intentional as a team but accurate in our details. We’re not complete chaos, but it’s like organised chaos.”
It is a method of play that has largely compounded opponents. In the past 18 months Canada have lost only once, to England in the WXV 1 finale at a humming BC Stadium in Vancouver.
Their only result that was not a win in that time was a 27-27 draw with the Black Ferns that ultimately handed Allan Bunting’s side the PAC4 crown after the southern hemisphere side dismantled the USA Women’s Eagles 79-14, which included a seven try haul for Portia Woodman-Wickliffe.
This year alone Canada have chalked up 42 tries, averaged 38.5 points in each of those seven outings this calendar year and conceded an average of 15.5 points per game.
In their past four games (against South Africa, the USA and Ireland) the side have conceded an average of 12 penalties a game, an average of 149 passes and put their opponents to the sword with an average of 47 per cent possession.
There is even an added maturity to this side. With 892 caps among the 32 players selected for the tournament, and while this does pale in comparison to England’s 1420, but does make them the most experienced Canadian side to compete for World Cup glory.
What Canada are able to do on a rugby field is captivating. You almost second guess yourself at times, wondering what they may do. But that is partly because of the athletes they have available to them.
Sophie de Goede is just as comfortable running with the backs as she is with the forwards, as is Olympic medallist flankers Karen Paquin and Caroline Crossley.
“You girls are the most athletic bunch,” Emma Swords said to Canada international Sara Svoboda on a recent episode of the Rugby Rodeo Podcast.
“I remember rocking up at Sarries in the Covid year, we had Sophie de Goede, Emma Taylor was there and Alysha Corrigan.
“Us English lot were there (in the gym), squatting our 80s (kilograms), our 90s – those girls are cleaning that, plus some. I was like, what programme have you guys been on? They were shifting some weight.
“Then I played with Julia Schell at Ealing (Trailfinders Women), the cleans that girl was getting. She was making 80s look a breeze. What are they feeding you lot?”
With threats everywhere you look for Canada and the unwavering dynamism that comes with each athlete, there is little wondering why defences have found it difficult to contend with what Canada offer.
In her most recent RugbyPass column, team captain Alex Tessier wrote that she hoped how her nation approached the game could pick up extra support along the way. You have to expect that it will.
READY
Several months ago, Rugby Canada’s CEO, Nathan Bombrys, asked the question; “when was the last time Canada won a world championship at a sport where ice was not involved?”
Nearly five months on it has been almost impossible to find the answer. There may not be one.
What we have seen from Rouet’s team for just over a year now is consistency. Consistency that can rival the Red Roses and Black Ferns when push comes to shove.
At their home WXV 1 last November, the team lost out to England 21-12 in the tournament decider, but it was ‘not the big picture’. It was another proving ground against an opponent, who the objective was not to beat, but learn more about themselves over a gruelling 80 minutes at a humming BC Stadium.
This year Canada have played as full-fledged Test matches as England and spent more time together in camp, thanks in part to the union’s Mission Win Rugby World Cup fundraising initiative – which has now raised 95 per cent of its CAN$1m target.
After Covid-19 induced disruption affected the Frenchman’s preparations for the 2021 World Cup – when the 38-year-old was thrust into the spotlight after the departure of François Ratier months before the tournament – he has been tireless in giving his side the best possible chance for success this time around.
Now his team have history on the horizon. Watch this space.