It’s really exciting to be looking ahead to a Rugby World Cup semi-final. That opening game against Fiji seems so long ago now, but it was such a special occasion. People have been talking up the six tries I scored in that game but a lot of it came down to being in the right place at the right time. I very much owe all credit to my teammates for those scores.
I remember that the day before was… I don’t want to say it was a normal day, because obviously it’s a Rugby World Cup, so everything’s a little bit different. But I remember having coffee with my parents, and it was just a very chilled morning.
We were all very confident going into the game, but at half-time our coach had said ‘Just back yourself when you’re one on ones and just put your head down and go’. We all just kind of took that to heart because at the beginning of the game, we definitely didn’t start as a team as we wanted to. We had scored a few tries, but we have pretty high standards for ourselves individually and as a team, and so we really just wanted to ramp it up in the second half.
Now that we’re into knockouts, it goes without saying but it just gets harder and harder. Not only in terms of what you can produce in terms of skill on the field, but also the heart – so much more comes along with it. We’re a team that the more time we are together you just like click, and you’re getting more used to each other and what certain people do in certain situations. So I think heading into knockouts, we’re in a really good place. We’re playing some fun rugby, and we’re just really excited.
The way people have talked about us in the press and on social media has been quite interesting! Obviously we came in like any team is going to come in and expect to win a World Cup. We are here with one goal, and that’s it.
We’ve tried to just shut out the background noise, because sometimes it’s ‘make sure you watch Canada’, sometimes it’s ‘they’re not supported, they’re never gonna put rugby on the map for Canada’. All the stories. At this point we’re just putting our heads down and trying to prove people wrong, I guess, but mostly doing it for ourselves at the end of the day. We are very lucky with the group that we have.
On Friday we will face the Haka which is pretty cool. Growing up you see it on TV all the time and is such a powerful thing in the maori culture., like, it’s very respectful, a respected. When you’re against it the adrenaline’s going, the caffeine is going, but you’re just ready to go. It’s so cool how they put down the challenge and can you step up to it. Especially in the last few times we’ve played New Zealand, we really have stepped up to it, and we’re looking forward to going up against it again this week.
It really is such an honour to represent Canada. We’ve grown up in a country where any sport that you can get into is recommended. Growing up so many of us played so many sports, and the goal was always that you wanted to represent Canada in some way. A lot of us grew up playing soccer or hockey or basketball, or whatever.
So playing rugby might not have been the first thing we thought of doing for our country when we were little, but whatever we were watching we got to see all these amazing male and female athletes competing for our country, whether it’s the Olympics or World Championships or whatever. That makes it so special to think that maybe someone little is watching us, and that one day they’ll do something like this as well.
See you at the game!
Julia