Canad captain Alex Tessier believes her side are ready to do whatever it takes in the Women’s Rugby World Cup final against England.
A stunning semi-final win over defending champions New Zealand took Kevin Rouet’s side through to a first tournament final since 2014, but the challenge does not get any easier against a Red Roses side on a 32-match unbeaten run.
England will also have a capacity crowd of around 82,000 roaring them on at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham, and Canada have trained with headphones on this week to practice their non-verbal communication in anticipation of the atmosphere they will face.
Though ranked second in the world, Canada launched a crowd-funding campaign ahead of this World Cup to bolster their hopes of winning the tournament, topping up £1.4m support from their union with nearly £540,000 of outside investment.
Having arguably been the form side in the competition, centre Tessier is confident that Canada can win their first World Cup crown.
“We will give everything we’ve got,” Tessier said. “We believe we can go all the way and it’s not done yet. That has been the goal.
“I think we have shown what this group is about already, with our performacne in the group games, the quarters and the semi-finals. I think we’ve taken a massive step forward in Canadian rugby by reaching the final again, and we will play for each other and give everything for each other on the pitch on Saturday.
“We know it is our last week together so we’ve really enjoyed our time together. It’s been a really positive week, we’ve focussed more on the quality of our training, and that’s been efficient and good for us this week.”
Head coach Rouet has named an unchanged matchday squad from the semi-final win over the Black Ferns, including three survivors of the 2014 final defeat to England.
38-year-old flanker Karen Paquin starts once again on the openside while bench forwards Olivia DeMerchant and Tyson Beukeboom also featured off the bench in Paris 11 years ago.
Canada pushed England close at WXV1 on home soil last October, leading 12-7 at one point in the second half before the Red Roses prevailed late on. Rouet believes his side are much better prepared this time as they seek a first win over their opponents since 2016.
“Experience together is important,” Rouet explained. “At WXV, it’s always the same that we don’t have much time together before the tournament. This time, we had a lot of time to prep and be together.
“Games are made on small details sometimes, and when you have time you refine that. I think that was missing. I think time together has been the key for us is to go in with confidence, I think it has been a game changer, but we’ll see. After 80 minutes, I’ll tell you if it was good.”
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