The sa国际传媒 women’s rugby team, captained by Sophie de Goede of Victoria, is backed by a remarkable recent pedigree of Canadian success in female team sports as it looks to meet heavily favoured England in the World Cup semifinals Friday at iconic Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand (8:30 p.m. PT on TSN4).
It follows Canadian women’s Olympic gold medals in soccer and hockey, the latter with Micah Zandee-Hart of Saanichton this year in Beijing, Olympic bronze in softball last year in Tokyo with Emma Entzminger of Victoria, and a FIBA World Cup semifinal appearance this year in basketball.
De Goede, surrounded by her teammates, tweeted out her appreciation of the Canadian fans following the national team from home across the Pacific: “Thank you for all your support. We really feel it over here and can’t possibly express how grateful we are having you behind us. We are really looking forward to performing for you in the semifinals.”
But it’s a tough ask of sa国际传媒’s mostly amateurs to beat a fully professional England squad that is undefeated in 29 Test matches dating to 2019.
Included in that run was a 51-12 victory by the Red Roses over sa国际传媒 the previous time these national sides met last November at Twickenham in London.
“We have a lot of belief,” de Goede said in a statement. “I am very proud. This is a great feeling [to be in the semifinal stage].”
sa国际传媒 went undefeated in Pool B at 3-0 and beat the United States 32-11 in the quarter-finals last weekend.
De Goede, a dual-sport rugby and basketball star out of Oak Bay Secondary and Queen’s University, has dictated pace and form for sa国际传媒 from her central No. 8 position and is also handling the penalty- and conversion-kicking duties
Veteran flanker Karen Paquin, a 2016 Rio Olympics bronze medallist with the Langford-based Canadian sevens team, will start today alongside De Goede.
Former University of Victoria Vikes star Paige Farries, a lightning bolt down the wing, will also start for sa国际传媒. Former UVic Vikes player Sara Kaljuvee, who brings quickness from the Olympics and Commonwealth and Pan Am Games in sevens rugby, will start at outside-centre. Elissa Alarie, from Westshore RFC, a silver medallist at the 2014 World Cup and sevens player last year in the Tokyo Olympics, is at full-back. UVic Vikes and Westshore RFC player Gabrielle Senft will be dressed in reserve off the bench.
But the game could come down to the Canadian forward pack of Emily Tuttosi, Daleaka Menin and Olivia Demerchant in the front row and Courtney Holtkamp, McKinley Hunt and Fabiola Forteza in the second row.
They must find a way to stop the piledriving England forward pack, which accounted for all seven tries in the Red Roses’ 41-5 quarter-final victory over Australia.
Friday’s other World Cup semifinal at Eden Park features host New Zealand against France. The championship game is next Friday.
