Sophie De Goede of Victoria could be on track to do for female rugby in sa国际传媒 what Hayley Wickenheiser did for Canadian women’s hockey and Christine Sinclair for soccer.
Heavy is the weight of expectation on anybody tabbed “the future” of any sport. But De Goede, 23, appears up to the task as leader of the Canadian women’s rugby team after captaining the side to the bronze medal game of the World Cup in New Zealand.
The French took home the bronze with a 36-0 victory, but De Goede won plaudits around the world for her play throughout the tournament for sa国际传媒.
“We came here to win the World Cup, and we fell short of that, so it’s disappointing. I hope this will be good building blocks for the future,” the Oak Bay Secondary product said, addressing the crowd at Eden Park following the loss late Friday night PT.
“We will look to build on this. We want to earn respect. Part of earning respect is being honest about your performance and we weren’t good enough [against France].”
There’s plenty of work to do on the road to World Cup 2025 and in a shortened quadrennial as the 2021 World Cup was pushed back to this year due to the pandemic.
“We would love to see more games, more opportunities and more resources pumped into this team,” said De Goede. “I think we have a lot of potential. We’ll go back and be honest about where we fell short in certain areas and look to address that and come back stronger in 2025.”
The rugby team follows a remarkable recent stretch of Canadian success in women’s team sports. It includes Olympic gold medals in soccer and hockey, the latter with Micah Zandee-Hart of Saanichton this year in Beijing, Olympic gold by the Island-based Canadian rowing eight last year in Tokyo, Olympic bronze in softball in Tokyo with Emma Entzminger of Victoria, and a FIBA World Cup semifinal appearance this year in basketball.
De Goede will build up women’s rugby in this country with a DNA that runs deep in the sport. Dad Hans De Goede came out of Vic High and James Bay Athletic Association to twice be named to the all-world XV and captained sa国际传媒 in the first men’s World Cup in 1987, and is considered a Canadian sporting legend. Mom Stephanie White was captain in the first-ever Canadian women’s Test match in 1987, played in Victoria against the U.S., and was sa国际传媒 co-captain in the 1991 World Cup and captain in the 1994 World Cup. Sophie De Goede’s parents were in New Zealand to watch her play in the World Cup and believe the event will bring up the stature of rugby on the female side.
“The final [34-31 for New Zealand over England in a riveting game] was a great win for New Zealand at home in front of a sold out Eden Park with 42,550 attending,” Hans De Goede wrote in an email.
“It was a milestone for women in sport. We have seen it in soccer.”
The younger De Goede is part of the generation that hopes to do for women’s rugby what Wickenheiser and Sinclair did for hockey and soccer.
