“Let’s go girls!” Can dark-horse Canada upset the Red Roses’ World Cup Final ambitions?

By Chris Collyer

Saturday’s RWC Final between Canada and England promises to be the blockbuster match of the tournament as the world’s number one and two ranked sides meet again in the final for the first time since 2014.

Canada and England both made it to the final without conceding a single loss in the World Cup and the Red Roses have not been handed a defeat since the last World Cup Final four years ago.

England have been a fiercely dominant force since the 31-34 loss to the Black Ferns in back 2021, swatting away all opponents with an exiting and well-drilled style of rugby that has rightly earned the Red Roses the number one spot in the World Rankings.

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Canada

Canada demonstrated their own ferocity in the Pool stages of the tournament by knocking out Fiji, Wales and Scotland before overpowering Australia in the Quarter Finals and going on to stun the current title holders New Zealand in an impressive 34 – 19 victory at Ashton Gate last Saturday.

Toppling the previous six-time World Champions is undoubtably the biggest achievement in the team’s history but for enthusiastic head coach Kevin Rouet the job is far from over and Rouet thinks Canada have what it takes to be crowned World Cup Champions for the first time.

 “I said to the girls to stop crying because we have a job to do in eight days, that’s the mindset.

“We need to finish the job. I am excited for next weekend. I want it to be next weekend now.”

England

England go into the final with an outstanding record of 31 consecutive wins and undoubtably bask in the intimidating fear factor that comes with the series of impressive performances. 

With the top two teams going toe to toe at the Allianz Stadium on Saturday, Red Roses head coach John Mitchell thinks both teams deserve to be playing in the final and that his team has what it takes to reclaim the title.

“You’ve got the two best teams in the world for the final which is awesome for the game, Canada are playing great rugby and we’re playing very effective rugby.

“We’ve had to fight this whole tournament and we’re expecting a different game at the weekend.”  

READ MORE: Rugby’s Moments of the Week: Ellie Kildunne takes Red Roses to World Cup final