No. 2 Canada’s Women’s Rugby World Cup final journey highlights changing landscape

The GIST: World No. 1 England and No. 2 Canada will battle for glory in Saturday’s Women’s Rugby World Cup final, a result of the sheer dominance both squads have shown all tourney long. It’s level on the pitch, but a different story emerges off of it…

🇨🇦 Canada crowdfunds their way to the tourney: But this wasn’t the far too common case of the men’s team receiving more money — there simply wasn’t enough for anyone, as Canadian rugby is underfunded across the board. Still, Rugby Canada asked head coach Kévin Rouet what he needed for success at the World Cup; he said $3.6M, the smallest budget at the tourney.

• The organizing body chipped in $2.6M, but the team was still $1M short, and that’s where Mission: Win Rugby World Cup 2025 was born. Fundraising wasn’t simply about getting to England but about winning there.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England blazed the trail: The Red Roses, on the other hand, have been fully professional since January 2019, when they became the first national women’s team to pay its players full-time — and they’ve only lost one game since. It was a historic milestone, one that’s already been followed by some of the game’s most dominant sides, like No. 3 New Zealand and No. 4 France.

⏩ Zooming out: Given a historical lack of domestic pro leagues, plus barriers to accessibility for fans, women’s rugby is only recently booming in North America. But that boom has transformed into an explosion in the wake of successful Sevens runs by both the Canadians and Americans at the Paris Olympics.

• Women’s Elite Rugby (WER) offers American players the opportunity to compete at home, the perfect place to develop local talent, while Canadian sports network TSN will broadcast all of the Canucks’ international matches through 2029, increasing the sport’s visibility.

• Canada’s deep run on the global stage helps too, proving talent can trump resources. Just imagine if they had both.