Kevin Rouet Names 31 Players for England Matches – Rori Wood, Caroline Crossley, Piper Logan Added

Coach Kevin Rouet has named 31 players for the two match series with England taking place in Toronto on October 16th and then Ottawa on October 23rd. There are a few new players coming in, Caroline Crossley as a loose forward, Rori Wood returns from injury and becomes another option at prop, Piper Logan in the backs gets her first chance at a XVs cap. Brittany Kassil who received a red card and suspension after the Scotland match is now back available to play. Some players missing from the Europe tour include Claire Gallagher, Maya Montiel, Cassandra Tuffnail, Sarah-Maude Lachance, Taylor McKnight.

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Canada Drop Match Against #4 France 21-5: Full Match Video

Was it the absence of Sophie de Goede or the let down after drawing with #1 England, either way Canada came out flat and were outplayed by France. The last time Canada were held to five points or less was in 2022, again by France when they blanked Canada 36-0 at the World Cup. They missed the leadership of Sophie de Goede, that was evident in subtle ways, when they had the momentum and France pinned in their 5 metres with a lineout, Canada didn’t put any jumpers up, no pressure at all. The forwards, usually Canada’s winning advantage, looked disconnected. The backline, never Canada’s strong point, struggled to make any impact.

Canada scored one try, by #8 Lizzie Gibson, who has been solid on this tour. Olivia Apps, who started at scrum half, then moved to the centres was the top back for Canada. Canada play at home next against England. Also congrats to former Canada coach, Francois Ratier, now France coach who had his team playing at top level. Full match video link below, plus World Rugby and Canadian Press reports.

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Canada Draw With England 26-26 – Ending England’s 39 Game Winning Streak

Canada’s last win against England came in 2016, they’ve lost to England the last 14 times and England has a 39 game winning streak against the world. Canada brought that to an end with a draw on Saturday. It was a back and forth match with the game tied at 19-19 at the half. England scored first in the second half, Canada tied it up with 20 minutes left in the match. The last quarter was scoreless and Canada decided to accept the draw by kicking the ball into touch while inside their 22. They’ll have two more cracks at England in Canada next month and they still have France to play on this tour. Below are the video highlights, the Rugby Canada report and the Canada player rankings by Planet Rugby.

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Canada Women Dominant in 64-26 Win Over Scotland: Next Up England

Canada’s formula is simple, put the best scrum half in the world on the field and match it with one of the top forward packs in the world and just be patient. Canada scored 10 tries, 5 were from the forward pack, 3 were from the scrum halves, 1 from the flyhalf, and 1 from the backline, the last try. When Canada can sort out their backline they’ll be #1 in the world. Olivia Apps is the top scrum half in the world in women’s rugby, and Justine Pelletier is not far behind.  Canada’s forwards are relentless on attack and defence, it’s a winning combination.

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Kevin Rouet Names 36 Players for Three Fixtures Versus Scotland, England and France in September

The Canadian women’s XVs team are headed to Europe for matches against Scotland, England and France. The first match against Scotland kicks off on September 12th. Canada’s previous match was against USA in April, a 50-12 win behind a dominant scrum. The starting XV from that match are again selected for the Europe tour plus some key players from the 7s team are returning Alysha Corrigan, Florence Symonds, Olivia Apps, Fancy Bermudez. There are a couple of 7s players possibly getting their first XVs cap, Charity Williams and Savannah Bauder. It’s a strong tour group as #3 Canada play #7 Scotland, #4 France and #1 England.

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Photos (20) with Commentary from Canada Women’s West Camp

The Canadian women’s XVs team held their west camp the weekend of May 16-17 in Langford. The intrasquad scrimmage took place May 17th prior to the men’s Island v Ontario match. We’ve posted 20 photos below with commentary. We missed some player IDs, feel free to add info via the comment section. One interesting point I noticed was that Christiaan Eisterhuizen was heavily involved in the coaching along with Kevin Rouet. Christiaan has been used in a multi-purpose coaching role with the Pacific Pride, men’s U20, and men’s 7s. With rumours of the Pride not returning will he take on some of the Langford based training of the women’s program?

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Rugby Canada Announce Regional ID/Development Camps for Women’s XVs – West Camp IntraSquad Match Prior to Island v Ontario Men’s XVs

Rugby Canada have announced East and West camps, the East camp took place last week, the West camp is taking place this coming weekend. The VIRU poster announced a “Canada Women’s Intersquad” prior to the Ontario v Island Tide match, these announcements lineup to expect a West camp intrasquad match on Sunday. The Rugby Canada media release didn’t mention which players are attending which camp but these are the players identified from BC and Alberta. We’ll try to get more details on which players are at the West camp and what the rosters will be for the intrasquad match

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Canada to Host England for Rugby Rematch Tour: First Match October 16th in Toronto

The national women’s XVs team are going to have a busy fall, first they’re heading to Europe in September to prepare for matches against England (Sept 19th), France (Sept 26th) and Scotland (??). Then they return home and host England on October 16th in Toronto, with one more match to follow to complete the two game Rugby Rematch Tour. The details of the second match haven’t been announced yet. That’s five high level games over two months! [UPDATE: 2nd match announced for Ottawa October 23rd.]

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Canada Defeat USA 50-12 Behind Dominant Scrum Performance

There’s no doubt Canada’s scrum set the platform for a dominant performance by Canada. The tight five of Brittany Kassil, Emily Tuttosi, DaLeaka Menin, Julia Omokhuale, Laetitia Royer deserve accolades in this win. Sophie de Goede is returning to her Player of the Year form and #8 is definitely her position. Taylor Perry floated some beautiful passes out to the wing to enable tries by Aurora Bowie and Asia Hogan-Rochester. Hogan-Rochester scored a try in each game of the series and is a star-level player in both  XVs and 7s. Alex Tessier was solid throughout, leading as captain. Canada fell behind early but didn’t panic and after Sophie de Goede scored Canada’s first try at the 22′ mark, it was all Canada after that.

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Canada Fall to 3rd in World Ranking with Loss to NZ: Video Highlights

Canada were outplayed on the day by the team that took over their #2 ranking, NZ. NZ rise to 2nd and Canada drop to 3rd. Canada were ahead at the half 14-10 but were completely outplayed in the second half. Two intercept tries by NZ in the last quarter highlighted the lack of imagination in Canada’s attack and inability to adapt to the NZ defensive strategy. NZ threw their outside defenders up fast and Canada kept trying to spread it wide without using any inside runners. Add in the advantage that NZ had at the breakdown, where slow Canadian support and isolated runners were punished with multiple turnovers, and it was a 26-0 2nd half in favour of NZ.

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