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Why world number two side Canada are fundraising for RWC 2025
By Joe Harvey
“When was the last time Canada won a world championship at a sport where ice was not involved?”
It is a question asked by Rugby Canada’s CEO, Nathan Bombrys, met with a silence that underlines how significant a 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup win for Canada could be.
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Now ranked second in the World Rugby rankings after a mesmeric 2024 that included a Pacific Four Series win and a first-ever victory over the Black Ferns, the North Americans are among the favourites to win the World Cup in England later this year.
But unlike the Red Roses and New Zealand, Canada’s squad is not professional athletes and do not have the same resources to call upon.
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In 2014, when the Maple Leaf was felled by England in Paris ,the two teams were on an equal footing as amateurs, but over a decade on, things could not be more different.
The Red Roses are the best-funded women’s rugby team in the world and have dominated every competition they have played in, while the world champion Black Ferns follow closely behind.
To give the team a better chance at World Cup glory, Bombrys and High Performance Director, Stephen Abound, sat down with head coach, Kévin Rouet, to discuss what extra support he needed for success.
The Frenchman’s desires were fairly straightforward: more training camps and games. To achieve that objective Rugby Canada launched Mission: Win Rugby World Cup, with the aim of fundraising CAD$1m.
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At the start of April, the campaign hit the halfway mark when the Canadian Rugby Foundation’s Monty Heald Fund donated CAD$150,000 to the cause.
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Injecting this money into the women’s programme will not only see the team become the union’s best-ever funded team, but also take their operating budget from CAD$2.6m to CAD$3.6m and triple the support that the squad had at the last World Cup.
“We are raising money and the truth is we’re still going to have one of the smallest budgets in the entire World Cup,” Bombrys told RugbyPass.
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“We’re number two, and even after we raise this money, we’re still going to have one of the smallest budgets in the entire tournament.
“There have been some really generous people who have stepped in and want to help. They’ve seen the excellence in the team, and they want to support the team. There is a realisation in Canada right now that moments to make the country now are important.
“I think a lot of people see this as an opportunity to make the country proud and create some really special moments. I think that is needed now.
“It’s in our strategic plan to support our teams through commercial endeavours, but also philanthropic endeavours.
“We did some events in October last Vancouver when we had the team together for WXV, and since, just trying to appeal to our rugby community, our sporting community, to get behind the team.
“In Canada, philanthropy is a key part of the mix, and people are willing to support a good cause. They want to see the game grow, and they appreciate that the players are amateurs. They are professional in their approach, but they are not being paid, they have to do something else, and our public appreciates that.”
Cash will contribute to fully funded training camps, which include a stipend for the players relocating to Langford, British Columbia, to be closer to the Al Charron National Training Centre, and warm-up games.
Playing in the Pacific Four Series against the USA, New Zealand, and Australia between May and June, before other games that will help the team best prepare for the World Cup.
South Africa Rugby recently announced that the Springbok Women will play Canada in a two-game Test series in July. The matches will form part of double headers with South Africa’s men, who will host Italy on the same matchday.
It will be the first time that Canada have ever travelled to the world’s 12th-ranked nation, as well as their first meeting in 12 years, and see Rouet’s team play in vastly different conditions as they travel from Pretoria to Gqerberha.
With less than a month until their Pacific Four Series campaign gets underway against the USA in Kansas City, Missouri, the green shoots of progress in the campaign are overwhelmingly positive.
“What I always worry about is when we at Rugby Canada try to fundraise or ask for money, there is a lot of negative backlash around ‘why don’t you fund your women’s team, ’” Sophie de Goede, Canada’s captain, said.
“I think most of it has been quite positive around ‘look at what Rugby Canada is trying to do’ and getting behind the organisation, these women and trying to help us achieve this. It is not that they’re withholding anything. It’s just that the coffers we’re pulling from aren’t big compared to these other unions.
“We’d love to strive for the quality of resourcing, etcetera, that England has, but that’s just not on the docket. We’ve known that’s never been on the docket.
“If we can increase it by this amount, we’re going from CAD$2.6m to $3.6m, increasing it by a third. That’s huge. That does wonders for us.
“I know that fundraising generally is like ‘women’s sports should be professional, why do we even need to fundraise?’, but ultimately that’s our reality and it’s no one’s fault.
“It’s just trying to grow a sport in a country that has sports that are more popular. I’m really happy with how positive it’s been and how much momentum we’ve gained.”
Bombrys is keen to emphasise that there is still plenty of work that needs to be done by Rugby Canada for long-term financial viability.
Whether it is securing more commercial partners, securing more home games to help develop revenue streams or securing the future of the Vancouver Sevens, the nation hopes that the years to come will be more fruitful.
Rugby Canada are due to add to a roster of commercial partnerships that include NFP and Raymond James, and national broadcaster TSN, in the coming weeks.
For over half a decade it is Canada’s women’s teams that have been a leading light for the union. The men’s 15s team failed to qualify for the 2023 Rugby World Cup, while the sevens set-up not only missed out on the 2023 Olympic Games but fell out of HSBC SVNS altogether.
Later this summer, the men’s squad can secure 2027 Rugby World Cup qualification with a top-five finish at this summer’s World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup (as Japan and Fiji have already qualified), which will be hosted in the USA.
In contrast the women’s 15-a-side setup finished fourth at the 2021 Women’s Rugby World Cup, have jumped to second in the World Rugby rankings and won a rugby sevens silver medal at last summer’s Games.
It is Olympic success that has contributed to an 11 per cent increase in player participation in the country in 2024.
Combined with the vast increase in attention on women’s sports, whether it is the WNBA, PWHL, March Madness or football, 2025 is due to be another landmark year.
Already ticket sales for the Women’s Rugby World Cup have torn strips out of its predecessors, with over 275,000 tickets sold and adding extra intrigue to the tournament.
“I think that hopefully this Women’s World Cup can realise the potential in England, because they already have a big rugby market and they back their women’s sport well,” De Goede said.
“For me, it’s just how does Canada stay relevant in the rugby space? I think we have some relevance in other women’s sports that are taking off, but in the rugby space, our men’s team has struggled.
“Our men’s team was strong until professionalism happened, and it has been downhill ever since. I worry about our women’s team doing the same thing, so that’s why I’m constantly fighting to get investment on the women’s side as women’s sport becomes more professional.”
There is no doubt that this Canada team could be calling themselves World Cup winners in six months’ time. Even without the funding of other rugby nations, the team have consistently outperformed and have provided the world with some of its greatest female players. Just extra support is needed to boost those performance levels up a notch.
As for which Canadian team last won a world championship, that was not on ice, we are still working that one out.
The Women's Rugby World Cup 2025 is coming to England. Click here to buy tickets.
