Not long ago, Charity Williams had no idea what new experiences her rugby career could offer. At 29, the Canadian has represented her country in rugby sevens at three Olympic Games. She has a silver and bronze medal to prove it.
This weekend, Williams will make her Test rugby debut Canada as a starter against Scotland in theirs WXV Global Series opener. It’s not often that a player makes his Test debut with 11 years of international rugby experience already in the bank. The Toronto-born wing is one of three North American debutants, with her sevens teammate Savannah Bauder and forward Sophie McDonald in line for the first games since the switch.
Williams is the last remaining player from Team Canada that won Olympic bronze at the 2016 Games in Rio. She played on the team alongside Bianca Farella, Jen Kish and Ghislaine Landry. You’d have to think that all three have a right to be in any all-time women’s rugby sevens dream team. As such, she is the only Canadian to have two Olympic medals in rugby sevens.
That’s what makes her international debut at XVs this weekend so intriguing. Since her mid-teens, Williams has been a fixture in Canada’s Sevens. In recent months, she didn’t just raise her hand to join last year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup runner-up, but also enjoyed his stay Japan with Yokohama TKM in the Taiyo Life Women’s Sevens Series.
“Over the last couple of years, I was like, OK, am I close to hanging up my boots?” Williams told RugbyPass. “Then something really fun came along. I started playing in Japan. I went to university. Now I play international XV.”
After Canada’s silver medal at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, the world opened up a little more to its players. From that point on, there was greater freedom for players to move between sevens and XVs, with a better understanding between coaches about what was strategically important to their programs. There is no doubt that this has helped women’s rugby in the country to flourish.
Having initially watched from afar while figuring out how playing XV alongside her SVNS commitments could help her career, Williams is now all in. And he loves it.
“I was just given an opportunity,” Williams said. “After Paris, we stepped into this decentralized model and it gave people opportunities. I just thought, why not say yes to whatever comes up?”
“I never saw myself playing anywhere but Canada, so playing in Japan was really great. Since I was maybe 15, I’ve only been on one team, the national team. It’s been really cool to have different coaches, different teammates and just experience life.”
“I feel like, why didn’t I do this sooner? Honestly, it’s been life-changing.”
As Williams alluded to, she has seen plenty of her sevens teammates improve in the 15-a-side game since the ‘One Squad’ model was introduced.
Last season, Olivia Apps was not only named JAECOO Premiership Rugby Player of the Season as Saracens she won the league title, but also helped Canada finish third at the HSBC SVNS World Championship. Fancy Bermudez, Alysha Corrigan, Pamphinette Buisa, Chloe Daniels, Sabrina Poulin, Claire Gallagher and Asia Hogan-Rochester all received playing time during the HSBC SVNS season.
Next season, it is more than feasible that Florence Symonds will do the same after signing for Loughborough Lightning this summer. She started at outside center in all six of Canada’s 2025 Rugby World Cup games before returning to SVNS action.
Canada’s success at the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup proved to be a catalyst for Williams. In recent years, she’s already enrolled at the University of British Columbia to study art and helped the rugby team win the U SPORTS 2025 title. But seeing Canada take the world by storm with its high-intensity style of play really got to the 29-year-old.
“I feel like I’ve been really inspired by all of my teammates, especially my sevens teammates who have transitioned into the ‘One Squad’ model,” Williams explained.
“The World Cup looked like so much fun, and such a cool opportunity. I saw how much my teammates grew and improved in their game and skill. I felt like I could do it too.
“My best friend, Asia (Hogan-Rochester), I text them all the time and they text me because 15s is new to them too. They’d text me like, this is crazy and all the stuff they’re learning. I felt it really well.
“And, obviously, Flo (Symonds) and Liv Apps. People I’ve played rugby with for so long. They’ve given me a lot of advice, they’ve been really supportive and patient, answering all my questions.”
“It’s crazy, because I’ve been playing for a long time and I’m experienced, but I’m kind of new to this side of the game.”
“I think the first time we talked was maybe two years ago,” Rouet said at his press briefing on Thursday. “All her teammates did both sevens and XV, and she is from the old generation where (sevens and XV) were completely divided – she processed whether it was good or bad.
“We’ve had those conversations about it being good for both of her games. She’s going to be great. She turned down the Ultimate Sevens to come to the XV, so she’s showing that she wants to.”
Williams finds it hard to hide the smile on his face when talking about his Test debut. Even 11 years after her first Canadian debut, the excitement is about the same.
When asked what differences she found between playing the two formats, she laughed as she tackled more on the XV court, and praised the coaching staff for giving her the confidence and pearls of wisdom to improve her game.
The clash against Scotland in Edinburgh will kick off six weeks of testing for Canada. It’s a gauntlet that Rouet described as a “World Championship” for his team, with games against England and France come to Europe, ahead of back-to-back games against their Women’s World Cup final opponents, the Red Roses, at home. The first, at BMO Field in Toronto, will break the attendance record for a stand-alone women’s rugby game in North America.
It’s all coming for Williams. Because all that matters now is the Hive Stadium and starting her Test rugby career the same way her career was in the week, with a try.
“I’m a little nervous, but mostly I’m excited,” Williams said. “At the end of the day, it’s just rugby. I’ve been doing it for a very long time. When I first started training with the team, I was very nervous. I felt like I was taking in all this information and it was a bit chaotic. It’s just rugby.”
“We had a really good training session. Some tussles with Ireland. We just got all the details right. I’m just excited. I’m confident.”
“I made my debut in 2014 or 2015 – maybe in Brazil. I was really, really scared. I had to pretend I wasn’t because all my teammates were the best players in the world at the time. I was so scared.
“I went out and scored my first try, and I remember thinking, everything is fine. It’s a really different experience (Saturday’s debut against Scotland). To debut with more than a decade of international rugby under your belt is so different. It’s a really strange feeling.”