Canada has one of the best women's rugby teams in the world. Why they're asking for your money

Sheena Goodyear · CBC Radio

· Posted: Mar 11, 2025 5:46 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago

The Canadian women's rugby squad is utilized to pulling supra its weight.

The amateur squad is presently ranked 2nd champion successful the world, contempt having lone a fraction of the fund of immoderate of its nonrecreational competitors.

Now, the women are heading to the 2025 Rugby World Cup with the extremity of unseating England to go the champion squad successful the world. But successful bid to execute that, they accidental they request the fiscal enactment of Canadians.

"We've been warring against the odds, and successful spite of a batch of fiscal challenges, to get to No. 2," Sophie de Goede, the team's captain, told As It Happens big Nil Köksal.

"For america to marque a jump, that's wherever getting much fiscal assistance and resources volition truly help."

Outfunded by pro teams successful Europe

On Friday, connected the eve of International Women's Day, Rugby Canada launched a nationalist fundraiser called: "Mission: Win Rugby World Cup 2025."

The sport's governing assemblage is aiming to rise $1 cardinal to supply the women's squad with other resources up of the 16-team tourney that runs Aug. 22 to Sept. 27 successful England.

The funds, it says, volition spell to things similar accrued grooming time, further players, coaching and country and board.

Thirty per cent of the fundraising extremity has already been reached via backstage donors. And during March, each donations volition beryllium matched up to $50,000 by a backstage donor.

But adjacent if the women get the fiscal boost they're seeking from the fundraiser, their backing volition autumn acold down that of different teams astatine their level. 

Rugby Canada reported gross of $15.57 cardinal successful 2023 with expenses of $15.12 million. Some $4 cardinal of that gross came from World Rugby with different $3.35 cardinal coming from Sport Canada.

By comparison, England's Rugby Football Union recorded gross of 175.2 cardinal pounds ($325.3 million) successful its 2023-24 yearly report.

Canada's squad is amateur, which means its players are not paid salaries. That's not antithetic for a nationalist sports team, but it puts them astatine likelihood with the different rugby teams astatine their level, immoderate of which person gone pro in recent years. 

England is presently the top-ranked women's rugby squad successful the world, with New Zealand astatine No. 3 and France astatine No. 4. All 3 are nonrecreational teams.

"It's a spot of a paradox, isn't it?" de Goede said of the team's outsized success. "It sounds corny, but there's a truly beardown attraction and committedness to each other."

She's arrogant of however overmuch much they've done with less, she says, but she doesn't deliberation it's sustainable.

"The past World Cup cycle, we weren't capable to get the funds that we needed … and truthful our clip unneurotic was greatly impacted," she said.

"One of the astir invaluable things we tin person going into a large show is conscionable clip unneurotic arsenic a squad to robust retired kinks and besides conscionable proceed to gel."

Growing Canada's rugby culture

While there's a known disparity betwixt men's and women's teams successful galore sports, de Goede says that's not the lawsuit for rugby successful Canada.

Rugby Canada, she says, funds the men's and women's teams equally. 

"But we're conscionable coming from a tiny assets pool. And truthful that's wherefore we're reaching retired to the Canadian nationalist and trying to entreaty to them," she said.

That smaller pool, she says, stems successful portion from the information that Canada doesn't person a beardown rugby culture, dissimilar galore different countries astir the world. 

It's thing she hopes a World Cup triumph could assistance change.

"I deliberation rugby aligns truthful good with Canadian values. Like Canadians, we're hard working, we're humble, and we conscionable privation to spell chill and person a brew connected the structure and footwear our feet backmost astatine the extremity of the day," she said.

"And that's rugby, right? We enactment hard connected the field, we teardrop each different up and past we honestly person a brew with the absorption aft the crippled and person a bully time. And we're a humble group, and a truly beardown assemblage sport. And truthful I deliberation it has each crushed to instrumentality disconnected successful Canada."

De Goede says the athletics is particularly beneficial for women, and she and her teammates privation an accidental to animate the adjacent procreation of girls to play.

"Rugby is the premier squad interaction athletics that tin truly empower a young miss and bring her into feeling assertive and feeling a carnal presence. And I deliberation that's truthful important," she said.

"We truly consciousness similar the visibility that we person with this World Cup accidental is simply a clip wherever we tin amusement and present young girls to our crippled of rugby."