Beukeboom column: 'There's excitement everywhere in camp. One more game to go.'

The North American rivalry is so intense. Last weekend in Ottawa was incredible. We said goodbye to home for the best part of two months in front of an incredible crowd that brought awesome energy.

Honestly the game wasn’t perfect. We beat the USA 42-10, but the first half didn’t go as expected. It was more of a grind than we’d hoped, and we didn’t stick to the plan as best we could have.

We pulled it together in the second half, played how we wanted to play and it all came together in the end. We’re even more hungry and excited coming out of that game.

‘This Energy Never Stops’ – Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025

‘This Energy Never Stops’ – Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025

There were 11,453 fans at TD Place, a new record for a stand-alone women’s rugby match in North America and just a few months after the last record was set in Kansas City. It was unbelievable. So good to be a part of.

To top all of that, we got to do it in front of our family, friends and home supporters. They had so much energy. They were so loud. That drove us.
When things weren’t going as well as we’d have liked, we knew we had to keep grinding because it was so important to put down that performance for our fans.

All week in Ottawa we’d been able to meet so many young girls, the stars of tomorrow, to give us another reminder of why we’re doing it. It is so much fun and goes so far beyond the game as we got to build connections in the community, grow the game in Canada and meet the people driving us towards a Rugby World Cup final.

That opportunity to connect is always really enjoyable. We get to hear people’s stories, hear how rugby has changed people’s lives and how our team, and teammates, have inspired the next generation.

It was also the first game since our World Cup squad was confirmed. I had a pretty good idea where I stood, but it was still nerve-wracking waiting for that call from Kev (Kévin Rouet, Canada’s head coach). At the end of the day, you don’t know until you know.

I’m going to my fourth World Cup and I’m just really excited. This is probably the best position a Canada team has ever been in going into a World Cup.

At my first World Cup in 2014, if you’d have told me that I’d be sticking around for three more I’d have told you I wasn’t. After every World Cup I’ve told myself that I’ll retire. Even when I was 23.

I got my first cap because someone decided to retire at the last minute. I was a non-travelling reserve and got pulled in. I couldn’t believe it. There was a large group of us getting our first caps that day. So, I was kind of just there. It sounds bad, but I got my first cap because there wasn’t anyone else.

When the World Cup came, I was supposed to be there for experience and then one person went down injured and suddenly I was on the roster. I can still remember thinking “oh my god, what am I doing here?”

When we got to the semi-finals and finals (in 2014), I said, “don’t put me on the field” and thankfully the coaches didn’t.

Now, I’m a little bit more integral to the group. I like to think I’m a key player in our group and that reflects in the longevity of my career.

This year’s World Cup just feels so different. The vibe of every World Cup team I have been part of has been so different and this one has been the most exciting.

In the past we’ve said, “we could” over and over again, this time around it has been a bit more like “we’re going to”. We feel so good.

After the last World Cup in 2022, a bounce here and a bounce there against England we could have got to the final against New Zealand. But we didn’t and we left it all in that England game, so when we got to France in the third-place game it stacked against us.

We’d only been coached by Kévin full-time for seven months then. We essentially paid for our own camps and only had 21 days officially together before the tournament. New Zealand, France and England had at least double that.

This year we’ll have had close to 50 to put us in the best position. In the past two years we’ve beaten New Zealand for the first time ever and took the confidence from that game into our home WXV 1 last year.

We had our fans behind us, and we finished second to England after we lost that game in the finale. I like to say we lost that game because I don’t think they beat us. We left out a lot of opportunities and points on the field in that game. We had a good game and, again, those bounces and little things that we needed to finish that game didn’t happen for us.

Now they look at us in a great place. We have such a dynamic style of play that they never know what to make of us. Honestly, sometimes we don’t know what we’re going to do. I think that is what makes us such a threat.

In July we also got to display something else that makes us so strong. Just ahead of the World Cup squad announcement we played two games against the Springboks Women and almost entirely changed squads for those games.

I won’t lie, the travel to Johannesburg wasn’t ideal. Our first flight was cancelled, and we didn’t end up leaving until two days later. There’s always something with us. Always some logistical nightmare. But we got there. Eventually.

We actually managed to go to a safari in Joburg and Port Elizabeth and properly experience the country.

South Africa is such a welcoming country, and the union is so supportive. Their men sat in the stands ahead of their games against Italy, properly supported their women and even said hi to us.

Siya Kolisi made the effort to come over and meet every one of our players and after the second game there was a post-match function where everyone was just really friendly.

Anyway, back to the games. We won both of them and were able to give so many players gametime. There were massive positives. Coming into the World Cup, Kev said we needed more games, he got them, and South Africa was a real test of our resilience.

They are a physical team, we saw that at the weekend as they beat the Black Ferns XV, and if I never have to play them again in my career, I’ll be happy. I got my whole ribcage rearranged at one point.

As a final audition, so many players stepped up. One thing Kev has done is build this unbelievable one squad mentality, with players that flow from the 15s to the sevens. That only adds to our strength, because as much as I and others have gone to Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR) to get better, those girls on the SVNS Series play such a good standard.

In South Africa, Flo Symonds reminded us of what an unbelievable talent she is in 15s. I think she is going to do some special stuff at the World Cup.

Kev has this ability to put a group together that’s going to thrive on the field. He can just see what dynamic is going to be successful. It may not always make sense from the outside, but I have learned to trust whatever he decides. It works. He’s a genius.

Before the World Cup finally gets underway, we play Ireland this weekend in Belfast. They’ve seen huge improvements in the past two years, and it will be a good battle.

As a team they are going to be structured. They have a good kicking battle. They are going to be clinical. They are going to be disciplined. We just need to match that with our own discipline.

We can get into hairy situations with discipline at times, so we need to keep an eye on that and build on our defence. What we really want to bring into this game is our physicality. We want to take away any hope they have for this game with our physicality.

More than anything else we want to build well all week, which we have been, get a good result at the weekend and go into the World Cup with a lot of confidence. On Saturday it will be exactly two weeks until we play Fiji at York Community Stadium.

We’re excited. Excited to play Ireland, but especially for the World Cup. We’ve waited so long to get out there now, we know what we can do, and it is so close. There is excitement everywhere I look in camp right now. One more game to go.