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Sophie de Goede: Returning from injury with 'edge and physicality'
By Joe Harvey
It was almost like the world stopped spinning when Sophie de Goede announced that she had torn her ACL.
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In one fell swoop, the injury sustained in a training camp put her Olympic dreams on hold. A week earlier, the 25-year-old had been told that she had been selected by Jack Hanratty to represent Canada at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
But instead of getting a silver medal draped around her neck at the Stade de France, representing her country at a home WXV 1 tournament or returning to Saracens Women in Premiership Women’s Rugby, De Goede was at home with a far different task at hand.
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Now, nearly 10 months on from the injury, the forward jokes that her continuing recovery is busier than if she was playing.
In a constant cycle of speed work, lifting weights, conditioning, physiotherapy and light work on the pitch, it has been a period of self-discovery for a player who had led her nation to unparalleled heights last year.
Whether it was a first victory over New Zealand in Christchurch or a second ever Pacific Four Series crown and rise to second in the World Rugby rankings, the goal-kicking back-row forward was at the heart of it all.
“When I have done speaking engagements, people would ask me about what adversity you’ve had to manage throughout your career, and I would have to blow something out of proportion and make it sound bigger than it was,” De Goede told RugbyPass.
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“Now I feel like I’ve definitely had that experience and had to really reach new lows to figure out how to rebound from that and channel that into finding new highs on my return.
“Being selected for the Olympic team and then tearing my ACL a week later, then watching them go on to win silver, I was really proud of the team and what it meant for rugby in Canada, but also feeling the pain of the personal loss. It has been a really difficult and challenging time.
“As an injured player, you always feel that disconnect and I was trying to manage my own rehab. I’ve seen how positive our team’s performance at WXV was.
“I’ve been able to take a step back. It’s given me the opportunity to really grow mentally and physically.”
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Now on the precipice of her long-awaited return to play, De Goede promises to be a different prospect.
While deployed in the forward pack, the 25-year-old had played much of her young rugby career at fly-half before transitioning to the back-row.
Regardless of the number on her back changing, De Goede has set herself apart by stepping into the backfield regularly, acting as another outlet to distribute the ball and possessing an awesome vision.
It is a skill set that made her a key component to Saracens Women across two spells, and she is regarded as one of the top talents in women’s rugby worldwide.
Even having missed a large swathe of 2024 with injury, De Goede was named in the World Rugby Women’s 15s Dream Team of the Year alongside international teammates Laetitia Royer and Alex Tessier.
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But to make a more lasting impact when she gets back onto the field, De Goede aims to add a new dimension to her armoury.
“A part of my game that I have always missed was that hard edge, the violence and dominance aspect of it,” De Goede said. “I had the physical attributes, but I like to play more with grace and skill.
“I still have that playfulness within me now. I have had a real pain and loss that I have had to endure.
“Last year at Sarries, that was something that Alex Austerberry and I had talked about, trying to almost do less and focus more on my presence.
“I love to be a game director, I come from playing fly-half, and I want to be amongst every play, and it is how we involve ourselves less and have more impactful involvements.
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“I was starting to develop that physical edge and presence, but I didn’t have the emotion behind it. Now there’s real emotion behind it. I want to say the emotion behind my performances, but I haven’t had the opportunity to perform yet.
“I just can’t wait to get back there so that the loss over the past year has given me a lot of emotion for when I return, to have that edge and physicality.”
The wait to see De Goede’s 6’0” frame with this added abrasiveness out on the pitch will have to wait a little longer.
When Kévin Rouet announced his 36-player squad that will defend the Pacific Four Series in May, his captain was not among those listed.
Starting their campaign with a trip to Kansas City, Missouri, to play the USA, before travelling to the Southern Hemisphere to play Australia and New Zealand, De Goede will again be confined to watching from afar.
Still working hard in the background on her recovery, the 25-year-old has hope that she will walk back onto the field before the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup.
At the start of April, South Africa Rugby announced that Canada would play the Springbok Women in a two-Test series this July, which offers a first potential opportunity for De Goede to return to the pitch.
“It’ll be a bit further down the line,” she said. “I want to make sure that I take my time with this one so that I’m in the best shape for the World Cup and the best shape for the rest of my career.
“I’m 25 years old, so I want to make sure that I have a good few years ahead and not rush. The goal is the World Cup, and if I can get back for a few Test matches before that, but I don’t have a hard and fast return date right now.
“PAC4 is not in the plan, but we have a couple of Test matches in the summertime and those are on the table.”
Whenever De Goede does wear a red jersey again, it is clear she will be at the heart of everything that the team does.
For some time, the Canada camp have been open about their aim of ultimately finishing the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup as champions.
To help aid their chances of lifting silverware at Allianz Stadium later this year, Rugby Canada has launched a fundraising campaign that they hope will plug the gap between them and other top competitors, England and New Zealand.
Doing so would be the culmination of an 11-year-old dream. Born to Canadian rugby royalty, Stephanie and Hans, De Goede has spent much of her life on the sidelines of a rugby field and attended the group stages and quarter-finals of the 2007 and 2011 Rugby World Cups.
But it was at the Stade Jean-Bouin in 2014 that she saw a Canadian side competing at the top for the very first time.
That Canada team boasted the talents of Magali Harvey, Karen Paquin and Andrea Burk, and had battled their way to the showpiece finale against the Red Roses and ultimately lost out 21-9 as the boot of Emily Sarratt ruled rainy Parisian skies.
“I still have the ticket from that game on my dresser,” De Goede said. “It’s one of the few things I still have in my room.
“That was certainly a seminal moment. That was one of the biggest crowds for women’s rugby, the atmosphere was incredible, and to know that we were competing on that level as a Canadian team.
Brought up at the heart of rugby’s unique ecosystem in Canada, De Goede fully recognises the additional responsibilities her team face this year.
“We need to have a good performance at this World Cup for the game to continue to grow in Canada and to get more investment,” she said.
“Someone asked me if I feel the pressure of little girls watching, and I think that is more of a responsibility and a privilege to inspire others.
“Where I think our team feels pressure is that our women’s teams are the flagship sides for Rugby Canada. We have to hold the flag and perform for our union to stay viable and relevant. That’s why this World Cup is so important to us.”
Excellent player and hope she gets back for the WC, but it sounds as if she will be seriously undercooked in terms of playing time. It’s taken quite a while for some other world class players to get properly up to speed recently after serious injuries.