Ellie Kildunne runs clear before sparking England into life with their first try against Canada in the World Cup final. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
One year on from the epic final women’s rugby is flourishing in both nations while England are aiming to take their successive win total to 40 games
Train like you have never won, play like you don’t know how to lose. That is the mantra scribbled on a whiteboard in the Red Roses camp this week as they prepare to take on Canada for the first time since defeating them in the 2025 Rugby World Cup final.
The game at Sandy Park on Saturday will be a week shy of the year anniversary of the Twickenham showpiece in front of a record-breaking 81,885 supporters. It is the fans that come to mind when players remember that day: the thousands waiting for both teams to get off of the buses, the noise in the stadium and the reality of a full Twickenham after months of speaking about what it might be like to play in front of that many people.
The final pitted the underdogs, Canada, who had knocked out the defending champions New Zealand in the semi-final, against the huge favourites, England. Not only did the Red Roses have the home advantage but they were also unbeaten since the previous World Cup final in 2022.
Everyone now knows it was England who came out on top but, in the opening minutes of the game, Canada drew first blood. Asia Hogan-Rochester scored the opening try and the Red Roses’ final was really launched when Ellie Kildunne evaded several defenders to get England on the scoreboard.
“You get those chances which are a ‘wow, as if I got through there’,” Kildunne says, remembering her try. “That is what it was, I didn’t really expect to get through but I did. I remember scoring and looking down the field at my teammates. It was the start of the match but it almost started the match again because Canada got the first try, so we were like ‘now we can start, now we are in it’. Just to hear the crowd’s buzz. It burst my eardrums straight away, suddenly we got this lift.”
A pulsating sold-out Twickenham before the start of the 2025 World Cup final. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
The noise of the crowd stunned the Canadian team too. The scrum-half Olivia Apps, who came on in the second half, says: “Once the stadium is that full and that loud it is just a different noise, I don’t know how to explain it.”
When the full-time whistle blew Apps adds that she was “shocked and heartbroken” and “sad to see how disappointed your teammates are and how much you know they put into it”. For the Saracens star there were two main areas where Canada lost the final: having fewer calm and composed players than England and the set piece.
“For us as a team coming away from that World Cup we know that in order to beat England, in order to beat the best, we have to have our set piece down,” she says. “I think that you can really feel that is something we are working and focusing on in training.
“I think when it comes down to it, it is the experienced players on the field that we need to have the composure and the ability to take the team to where we need them to go and the mindset we need them to be in. I think as Canadians we are very athletic, fierce and passionate but it’s about having the balance, control and calm mindset that I think we need to implement more into our training.”
The player of the final was the England flanker Sadia Kabeya, who has a different take on where the game was lost for Canada.
England’s Sadia Kabeya says slowing down Canada’s attack was key to winning the World Cup. Photograph: Steve Bardens/RFU/Getty Images
“I think we knew coming into that game that Canada loves to play with momentum,” Kabeya says. “They love to play on top and without structure. The easiest way to do that is if you have a really fast breakdown. So our main thing was to have dominant collisions and to slow down that breakdown. Slowing down Canada’s attack also gave us more attacking ball because they would end up kicking it back to us or knocking on the ball because of our pressure. I think where the game was won and lost was just our aggression in defence.”
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The impact of the final has been felt in both England and Canada. For the Red Roses, they have seen consistent large crowds and they will play against New Zealand on 26 September in front of more than 50,000. Premiership Women’s Rugby also recorded an increase of 23% in attendances across the English top-flight in the 2025-26 season. Meanwhile in Canada, Apps says: “Underage women’s rugby is up 300% and the underage groups have the highest amount of registrations that they have ever had.”
Olivia Apps (right) is ready to see how Canada measure up to England this time around. Photograph: Alex Williams/Alamy
The 2025 final was the second World Cup showpiece the two nations have played against each other after England also beat Canada in the 2014 final. It is a rivalry that will reignite on Saturday.
“I am curious to really see how both teams have changed and evolved over the year,” Apps says. “They [England] are in a great place but it is not the same as it was last year for both sides so I am curious about that.
“I hope our coach doesn’t put too much pressure on us. I don’t feel pressure, it’s just seeing where we are at. See where we measure up a year later after the World Cup final. There’s not 80,000 people watching us or the big lore of the World Cup final. It’s just a Test match and we can just see what happens.”
From an England perspective, they are focused on themselves and potentially taking their consecutive win record to 40 matches.
Kabeya adds: “It’s just another game. We played them in the World Cup. We played them in WXV. Now we are playing them in a Test series. For us it is about how good we can be and we will see if Canada can hold out.”
