Rugby World Cup 2025 has been a wonderful experience for us. Having so many people cheering for us at every game, for every player, has been incredible. It’s amazing to see full stadiums and the support all the people are giving us. There’s so much love, so much energy. Good energy that we can feel. And it’s all the more touching because sometimes it’s from someone who doesn’t know the team or doesn’t know who is playing against who, but they are cheering for each moment and they are giving us the strength to play harder and for longer.
That was the case when we played against France over the weekend, where Bianca Silva scored Brazil’s first ever try which we all celebrated together. It was a really big moment for us as a team. We all deserved that try because we work hard together. That try showed the world that Brazil is capable of being among the best teams in the world, we just need more practice. We need to play more games and have more experience to try to beat some big teams.
After the game we celebrated more; everyone together, dancing Brazilian style. Dancing and singing gives us a lot of energy, an energy to share with others. It’s all about the flow and making sure everyone’s on the same page in celebrating a team goal being achieved.
I’m truly living my living a dream by being here. It’s a big pleasure to be a part of this team that is making history. I’m so proud of how we’re helping write a new page in the history of rugby in our country.
I was lucky enough to be Brazil’s flagbearer at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. It’s hard to compare that experience to this one because they are so different. But the fact is we have been putting our name in the sevens game for a while, and now we’re at a 15s Rugby World Cup. It’s a big step up for us and I’m really happy to be part of it because we all work hard to put Brazilian rugby on the map and show the world that Brazil is about more than football. We have a lot of sports and rugby can be one of those big sports too.
It’s not just about showing the world, though; we also want to show the people of Brazil what they can get out of playing rugby. Rugby is a sport of values and we have a big responsibility to show everyone these values and I believe that this is the way we can grow rugby in Brazil.
I have gotten so much out of rugby personally. My team is my second family. We spend more time with our team-mates than with our families. We are sisters who work together. We have each others’ backs every time, and that is why rugby is so important because you don’t do anything alone, you need others. It’s a collective sport. You celebrate everyone’s achievements, not just yours. Each one of us in the squad tries to help each other be better players so we can all be better players in return and therefore a better team.
I have first-hand experience of the upliftment this team is capable of. I am a survivor of breast cancer, from which I recovered to make my way back onto the rugby field. I’m proud of this because I feel I can show other women in the world that cancer is not the end of your life, it’s just one part. I can show them what is possible and I’m really proud of this because I’m showing it in practice – it’s not just words.
It really works if you have good support and if you have a really good mindset. You can achieve things you never imagined, and rugby helped me so much in my recovery. Not just because of my mindset as a competitive athlete, but from the point of view of the collective.
Rugby has helped me in so many ways. It has given me good friends, good support, it has given me people who care about me. So rugby helped me in my recovery not because of my discipline or what I did on the field, but more because of the people that rugby gave me to support me.
I am hoping this weekend we can all pull together and beat Italy and finish the tournament on a high. Pulling together is the Brazilian style of play. While some teams have a gameplan or a structure they will stick to regardless of the players, we prefer to identify each person’s tools and use everyone’s individual skills to make a better collective. Yes, we have fast feet and loud fans, but each player and fan is different, and each plays their part on and off the field to help a team that is greater than the sum of its parts. That’s what I love about being a rugby player, and that’s what I love about being Brazilian.