Canada, who launched a crowdfunding campaign before the Women's Rugby World Cup, are not as big an underdog for Saturday's final against England as you might think.
Women's Rugby World Cup final: England v Canada
Venue: Allianz Stadium, Twickenham Date: Saturday, 27 September Kick-off: 16:00 BST
Coverage: Live on BBC One, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra and the BBC Sport website and app
England might seem clear favourites to beat Canada in the Women's Rugby World Cup final on Saturday, but it is far from a foregone conclusion.
The Red Roses are the world's number one ranked team and unbeaten in 32 matches, but the Maple Leafs are just behind at world number two and unbeaten this year.
England need to beware - Canada schooled defending champions New Zealand 34-19 in the semi-finals having led 24-7 at half-time.
And the last time they faced the Red Roses in 2024, although they ended up losing 21-12 they had more of the ball, more of the territory and were arguably the better side.
Canada, whose team launched a crowdfunding campaign before the World Cup, are not as big an underdog as you might think.
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Canada ruck speed 'like an F1 pit stop'
Kevin Rouet's side have hardly put a foot wrong this tournament.
They won all their group games scoring 40 points in each, thumped Australia 46-5 in the quarter-finals and then blazed past New Zealand in the semi-finals thanks to a fast start which had them leading 17-0 after 24 minutes.
"Canada have one of the fastest ruck speeds," former England flanker Maggie Alphonsi told BBC One when asked to explain what makes the Maple Leafs so good.
"When you watch the way Canada play, they take the hit and then the ball is out again in under two seconds. It's almost like a Formula 1 pit stop."
Quick ruck speeds - the time it takes for the ball to be recycled after a tackle - are critical if sides want to keep up their attacking momentum and create chaos in opposition defences.
This World Cup, Canada have produced the second-most clean breaks, the second-most offloads and have overwhelmingly made the most amount of runs.
They like to play fast and fluid rugby, focusing on keeping the ball off the floor. For comparison, England have made two fewer clean breaks, 48 fewer offloads and 253 fewer runs.
Former hooker and Japan head coach Lesley McKenzie, who watched England struggle to deal with France in their semi-final, says Canada have the ability to "scorch England".
"Canada will go after England," she told the BBC's Rugby Union Weekly podcast.
"They play chaos, they play unstructured.
"Like France they're unpredictable, and they're fit enough and fast enough to back that up."
Outfunded by pro teams, but rugby IQ 'off the scale'
Canada are in their first World Cup final since 2014, where they lost 21-9 to England in Paris.
Since the last World Cup in 2022, which ended with a narrow semi-final loss to England, Canada have twice finished in the top three of the WXV1 tournament, won the Pacific Four Series in 2024 - narrowly missing out on defending their title on points difference - and the sevens side took silver at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The Maple Leafs are competing for airtime against sports such as ice hockey, basketball and football, but are making a name for themselves this World Cup, with Canadian pop star Shania Twain among those wishing the side good luck on social media before their semi-final.
Despite their riches on the pitch, funding has still been a difficult issue for the Maple Leafs who unlike England are not a fully professional side.
To go with the financial support they get from Rugby Canada and World Rugby, the team also raised £530,000 in a fundraising drive titled Mission: Win Rugby World Cup.
"That crowdfunding comes too late to be really functionally productive to any World Cup build-up," said McKenzie, who had to pay to play for Canada when she made her debut in 2004.
"So all of the work that's gone into this has already been done. It's been planned for in the preceding years.
"Whilst they don't have money, their IQ on rugby is off the scale right now.
"[Head coach Rouet] has got such a good demeanour with the group. And it is a complex programme. There's different languages to negotiate. There's different countries, different time zones.
"The country is so big it is completely economically unfeasible to have a big central camp more than once."
Several of Canada's squad still live in North America and have day jobs around their rugby. Prop Olivia DeMerchant, for instance, is a firefighter for the Halifax fire department.
But just over half the squad, including world player of the year nominee Sophie de Goede, captain Alex Tessier and fly-half Taylor Perry, have contracts with English clubs in the Premiership Women's Rugby (PWR) league.
Rugby Football Union (RFU) chief executive Bill Sweeney believes it is a good thing that the strength of PWR is helping develop Canada's players, even if it might come back to haunt England on Saturday.
"They're getting the exposure to top-class women's rugby," he said. "We all want to see the women's game improve and levels of competitiveness increase.
"If that makes Canada a stronger team, if other international players come and play there, and that improves their union performance, that's great for the game."
As for inspiring the next generation back home, McKenzie is confident the final "will have an impact", and that Canada will have a huge chance to become world champions for the first time.
"Canada are here to do a job," she said. "It's going to be good, isn't it?"
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Category: General Sports
