There’s a story that has been quietly circulating around Canada’s women’s team for a while now. A story that goes back almost three years, when French head coach Kevin Rouet showed up at the start of a tour with a book tucked under his arm: Be water, my friend, written by Shannon Lee, the daughter of martial arts icon Bruce Lee.
At first, the players laughed. And then, something shifted – naturally, deeply.
Away from the spotlight, Canada worked with persistence. From a pool-stage exit at Women’s Rugby World Cup 2017 in Ireland (there were no quarter-finals that year, and they finished 5th), to a fourth-place finish in New Zealand in 2022, and now a second consecutive semi-final in England – against New Zealand this Friday – this team has climbed steadily towards the summit of world rugby.
With no big budget. With determination. With passion. By adapting.
It’s hard not to see the imprint of what Shannon Lee calls “the true teachings of Bruce Lee”. Teachings that have helped shape what Canada has become today: the world’s number two side – behind England, and ahead of New Zealand.
“It honestly just happened by chance,” said Kevin Rouet to RugbyPass, in an exclusive interview. That day, the training pitch wasn’t good. Canada has long been used to the opposite reality of wealthy nations training in custom-built centres. For them, it has always been about adapting to whatever is available. Never the ideal set-up.
“Whether it’s in our training, in our training environment, we always have to adapt. Same with coaching – we don’t always have regular coaches. Staff members rotate, all those kinds of things,” explains Rouet.
“So in ‘Just be water my friend’, it’s simply about accepting that nothing will ever be perfect. You have to live with it. That was the idea at the start. And it became part of our game, because in the way we play, it’s never perfect either. And sometimes, from imperfection, you create something great. That was kind of the idea. And now we’ve fully embraced it.”
Canada have learned to thrive in that constant flux. To move with it. To embrace imperfection, and make something out of it. It has become their signature.
For Bruce Lee, the metaphor of water was central to understanding the foundations. “At its essence, water flows. It finds its way around (or even through) obstacles. My father would call this having “no limitations” », writes Shannon Lee. “Water is present to its circumstances and surroundings and therefore ready to move in any direction that allows it passage.
“That openness and pliability means it is in a constant state of readiness, but a natural readiness because it is simply being wholly itself. To be like water, then, is to realise your most whole, natural, and actualised self where you are living as much as possible in the slipstream of life as you forge your own path forward.
I’m not as convinced as I was two months ago that they’ll win the Rugby World Cup, and I know I’m not alone. And, as counter-intuitive as this might seem, a big reason for that is that it’s all been too easy.
Read Now“For anyone who has ever had to contend with a leak, it is sometimes baffling how the water got in and ended up where it did. Sometimes you have to rip the whole wall or ceiling apart to find out where it’s coming from and how it’s traveling to its destination.”
Shannon Lee recalls an episode when a leak was discovered one day in her office. A contractor came three times, and despite every attempt, the problem never got fixed – no one could locate exactly where the water was coming from. “It was springing up in all kinds of places and seeping through the wall on the upper floor”, she tells.
“Distressing as it was for us, why is this admirable on the part of the water? Well, the water was not to be deterred. It was going to find a path, or even multiple paths. It would move along until it met with an obstacle, and then, if it needed to, it would change course and keep on flowing. It used “no way” as its way. In other words, it used the best possible way. And it ran along without limitation.
Her words carry the essence of her father’s philosophy – fluid, relentless, and endlessly adaptable.
“They are UNSTOPPABLE at the moment” 🇨🇦
Four tries in the first 20 minutes puts @RugbyCanada in charge so far #RWC2025 #CANvAUS pic.twitter.com/I5FI4mWUbP
— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) September 13, 2025
Built on those principles – and many others found in the book – Kevin Rouet has instilled in Canada’s team the resilience and determination that power them today.
Many of the players have read it. They’ve immersed themselves in its lessons, finding language for emotions, ideas, and ways of thinking – like the concept of “empty your cup “, an invitation to clear out the unnecessary and make space in the mind for new, useful things.
“He implanted his way of living in me”, says Canada forward Laetitia Royer. “And then that whole aspect of ’empty your cup’, ‘you know nothing’, being always on alert because there is always something to learn, always something to improve, to stay fluid. If you can be ‘like water’, you can seep in anywhere. I think that captured the idea really well.”
The Black Ferns – Canada’s next opponents – may not have phrased it the same way, but their coach Allan Bunting is a firm believer in the same mindset. “You want to do great things and adaptability is a key attribute to have”, he says. “Our ladies have pretty good instinct and we have to see things and think. Obviously they have these set-pieces that we haven’t seen so we have to see that as quickly as possible and adjust and make really good decisions.”
That ability to adapt could decide everything this weekend.
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The hearing came to the judgement that he did it on purpose. Why are you being so weird about that?
Don't try to reason with me when I'm being unreasonable!
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