When Canada to play England at Sandy Park this Saturday will mark 357 days since the two teams met in the women’s Rugby World Cup The 2025 Final It is a day that will live in the memories of rugby fans for many years, as 81,885 fans gathered at the Allianz Stadium to conclude the best-attended and most successful edition of the tournament ever.
While the memory is bright for many, for Canada the memory carries a little more darkness. Defeated 33-13 in west London, the team left the field knowing they had not lived up to the potential they had shown in the lead-up to the final.
Before the two teams meet for the first time since that day, Olivia Apps freely admits to rewatching her team’s loss. More than once.
Clips of the finale were played in a large number of reviews. Recently, the scrum-half watched the entire game with Canada’s leadership group. Every viewing is done with the intention of helping the development of Canada.
In the 12 months since their Women’s Rugby World Cup final defeat, Canada head coach Kévin Rouet has made his 10-man Test debut. Three of those debuts came last week in the team’s 64-26 victory Scotland in theirs WXV Global Series opener. Both Charity Williams and Savannah Bauder stuck around in their 15-a-side debuts. Lizzie Gibson, who beat the white twice in Edinburgh, got her first cap only in April.
Already, in a short period of time, Apps believes Canada has made great strides – and is a better team than it was this time last year.
“It’s like the beginning of a new chapter right now,” Apps said RugbyPass. “It took us a year to really embrace the World Cup final and take everything we learned from that game. For me, there’s not a lot of emotion anymore because I feel like we’re a completely different team this year than we were a year ago.”
“We (Canada’s lead group) watched the World Cup final again last week and I thought, Holy shit, our team is so much better now. Our team is so much better than we were last year. Which I think is a huge confidence boost. It’s not the same team and I’m excited to start a new chapter with this group and not be afraid of the World Cup final.”
Canada will play England three times this year, starting this weekend in Devon. Departure to La Rochelle France will follow before a two-week break, followed by back-to-back Test matches against the Red Roses. One game at BMO Field in Toronto. Another one in the nation’s capital, Ottawa.
The somewhat split three-Test series certainly caught the attention of both camps. After announcing his team would play Canada, Red Roses boss John Mitchell highlighted the “rivalry” between the two nations.
For this weekend’s match, Apps retained her starting spot. Used from the bench last year at the Allianz Stadium, she now has the chance to direct the game from the first whistle as Canada look to end the Red Roses’ 39-game unbeaten run and stun a sell-out crowd in Exeter.
“It’s crazy that it’s been a year — it’s crazy,” Apps said. “I’m happy we get to play them more than once a year. I’m really pleased about that and I see these next three Tests against them.”
“I wish we only had three times in a row – like we played France this weekend. Kévin has his own plan as he sees these three Tests and managing players. All we’re doing this year is beating England. It’s no secret.”
“All we’re doing on this tour (is to beat England). The Scotland game is preparation for England. The France game is to prepare us for the home games against England. Everything is focused on that.”
Apps and her teammates will take on a Red Rose team with a clear desire to improve on their last performance. Although John Mitchell’s side won 48-15 in Salford, the world champions made a slow start against the Wallaroos.
At halftime, the world’s ninth-ranked team led the Red Roses 10-5. It was the first time England had trailed at midfield since 2020 as the Wallaroos’ uncompromising and unrelenting physicality prevented the world champions from gaining a stable foothold in the game for 40 minutes.
Canada can certainly take huge positives from Australia’s performance. It also evokes memories of Canada’s 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup semi-final win against the Black Ferns at Ashton Gate 12 months ago, as their own relentlessness, coupled with a burst of attacking brilliance, sank the six-time tournament champions.
“From what we saw Australia is — I feel sorry for them — they didn’t give them respect at certain times,” she said. “I feel like at certain times when you’re playing a top nation, you give them too much respect. You give them too much space.
“You could see Australia being very physical, very dominant, putting pressure on the structure they want to play and forcing mistakes. For us, when we saw the Australian mindset on the ball, it gave us a really clear picture. And it’s something we can do. It’s something we know we’re capable of.”
Apps arrives at Sandy Park in good shape. Last week, her two tries and two assists against Scotland earned her the Mitsubishi Electric Player of the Week.
That recognition is just the latest for the 27-year-old. At the end of her first season with JAECOO Premiership Women’s Rugby Club Saracens, she had a league winners’ medal to retain her 2024 Olympic silver medal. She was also named the league’s player of the year, for which she received a Tiffany necklace.
Upon arriving in north London, Apps said RugbyPass she wanted to “experience something new” after several years of splitting her time between the Canada Sevens program and Test rugby.
The scrum-half made 14 appearances in England’s top flight last season, scoring 11 tries, beating 50 defenders and making 877 metres. She has also been involved in Jocelyn Barrieau’s sevens at various stages of the HSBC SVNS Series and the HSBC SVNS World Championship.
“I didn’t think the award ceremony was going to be real,” Apps said. “I thought it was going to be something like, vote for your player of the season and then it’s going to be posted on Instagram. Then there was the awards ceremony and I was like, this is kind of bougie.
“This is the first time in my career that I’ve been recognized like that. It was really cool. It’s a little weird for me to talk about myself, I’m embarrassed to talk about myself, but I got some messages from people saying that it’s going to PWR and being Canadian and being the player of the year is something I should be proud of.
“PWR is for England players and England players are very celebrated. That’s really stuck with me; I feel proud to be Canadian in that league. I feel like we get more credit that we deserve. It felt really good to put us on the map more in that sense.”
The weather in England brought another change for Apps. Many English players were once relatively unknown to her. Now the Red Rose players are teammates and regular opponents.
Last season, Apps played club rugby for the first time. To her Saracens debut against Harlequins last September, she wore only a red Canadian.
Now the number of English players counts as friends. Including this weekend’s fly-half Zoe Harrison, with whom Apps formed a great partnership last term as Saracens were crowned English champions for the 16th time.
Like many of her international teammates, Apps has called England home for the Europa League season. She believes the time alongside her biggest Test rivals has given them confidence. Even if it added a different dynamic to the game.
“It’s different,” said the 27-year-old. “Before it was just names on the team sheet. Now it’s people I play with or played against last season. It just takes the mystique of the Red Roses players. You think that for some reason, because they’re number one in the world, they must have something that Canadian rugby doesn’t have. Now that I’ve seen them and when I’ve seen them and I’ve been able to know exactly where my rugby players are. where we are.
“It also adds a bit of confidence. It’s nice to feel prepared. Like, I know how Zoe Harrison ticks. It’s a nice, different dynamic that I’d like all Canadians to experience.”
