Perhaps no Island athlete has experienced as many whiplash emotions this year as Canadian women’s rugby team captain Sophie de Goede of Victoria, who suffered a devastating ACL injury in training just weeks before the 2024 Paris Olympics.
De Goede, a dual threat in sevens and XVs, watched from the sidelines as Canada won the silver medal in the former at the Olympics over the summer in Paris and rose to No. 2 in the world in XVs after an impressive run this month in the WXV-1 tournament. But now she has something “real and concrete and tangible,” as she describes it, to hang onto as the draw was held Thursday in London for the 2025 World Cup in England.
Canada was drawn into Pool B with Scotland, Wales and Fiji in the World Cup from Aug. 22 to Sept. 27 in England and de Goede vowed she will be ready: “It’s good for visualization to see the colours of the [Scotland, Wales, Fiji] jerseys in the mind. All my rehab has been centred on being back for the World Cup. It’s been two months post-surgery and I’m right on time.”
Rugby Canada believes so, to the extent that de Goede joined head coach Kevin Rouet, in the media Zoom call to discuss the 2025 World Cup draw.
As a driven athlete, however, de Goede is realizing the mind can’t always overcome physical realities: “I am used to pushing boundaries [physically], but in rehab, you learn you have to tick off the [recovery] markers as they come. What has helped is the support of my home community. I’ve received all kinds of notes of encouragement from people in Victoria.”
De Goede captained Canada to the 2021 World Cup semifinals in New Zealand (postponed to 2022 due to the pandemic) in a commanding performance en route to being named one of five finalists for World Rugby female player of the year. She said Canada’s heady run this year, from sevens in the summer in Paris through the fall in XVs, has been bittersweet to miss out on but is a boon for Canadian women’s rugby.
“Everything that’s happened this year has been a positive for the growth of women’s rugby in the long run in Canada,” said the two-sport rugby and basketball star out of Oak Bay Secondary.
“Just as the bronze medal in the [2016] Rio Olympics changed the landscape for women’s rugby in Canada, the Olympic silver medal from Paris will do even more for the sport in Canada. That makes me much more excited as I rehab.”
The opening game of the 2025 World Cup will be played at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland and the championship game will take place on the hallowed rugby grounds of Twickenham. The complete schedule will be announced Tuesday.
“Playing Wales and Scotland in the U.K. will mean good crowds for our pool games. And Fiji is a rugby hotbed,” said de Goede, of Canada’s Pool B opponents.
The other groups will consist of England, Australia, Samoa, USA in Pool A, New Zealand, Ireland, Japan, Spain in Pool C and South Africa, France, Italy, Brazil in Pool D.
