fOr anyone who might think of the New Zealand champion is someone who is reaching the Rugby World Cup final, Canada has three key attributes that suggest they can eliminate the black fern in the semifinals on Friday night: Faith, Quick Ruck Speed and Sophie de Goede.
Canada, the second goal in the world, beat England at WXV 1 in 2024, but was struggling in the early stages of this match, with much of its focus on New Zealand's potential to hold the 2022 finals. Canada will still be seen as a weaker person in some circles against the last four black ferns, according to Alysha Corrigan, which is a lot of the things the team says.
“It's not new to us, and we're usually seen as the weak, and not always get the recognition we think we deserve,” Corrigan said. “I think that's something that burns our fire.”
Self-confidence is understandable, due to the latest results between the semi-final opponents. Canada beat New Zealand for the first time in the 2024 Pacific Four Championships, with the two teams defeating them 27-27 in the last of the 2025 PAC four matches.
“We beat them for the first time and it gave us great confidence,” said Canadian captain Alex Tessier. “Oppose them confirmed where we are, we have been growing. We are growing after every game.”
“We beat them for the first time and it gave us great confidence,” said Alex Tessier, the Canadian captain, who was confident in defeating New Zealand. Photo: Andrew Matthews/PA
As far as they are concerned, the champion is wary. The most closed black fern in history, the front half of the leg, Kendra Cocksedge, raised the team of Kévin Rouet to the one that made them problematic.
“I believe they are currently our bogey team,” Cocksedge said. “Once you beat the black jersey, your tail lifts up and gives them confidence. They're playing that, they're the ones we need to seriously consider.”
An element of the Canadian game can unlock opponents’ impressive defense, which is their fast speed. They have the fastest average of the average throughout the pool stage, with less than three seconds against Scotland in the finals and the most competitive pool matches. Their quarterfinals aren't about slowing down, and if the defense scores are too slow and the reaction is too slow, then Canada will score – so far, in the four games so far this game has been 30 attempts.
Then we come up with a third reason, de Goede. As she recovered from an ACL injury in the semifinals, one of the best players in the game was one of the game’s best players, and her performance was even more impressive.
Rouet describes De Goede as “cherry on cake” in Canada, entering her peak at the right time. The former captain's statistics support the hype of her all-around game – two attempts, 17 conversions to the team's goalkicker, successfully completing 50 turnovers and 47 tackles in four turnovers.
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Canada will have to find a way to keep New Zealand's Braxton Sorensen-McGee Quiet, the current high and attempted score in the tournament. Photo: Alastair Grant/AP
Despite Canada's certificate, New Zealand still has the ability to win despite the blow of Jorja Miller's injury. They won six World Cups after all. They also have a winged Portia Woodman-Wickliffe's World Cup top scorer, while the current tournament top scorer is another tournament top scorer by Braxton Sorensen-McGee. Although Canada has been strong against them recently, its first win against New Zealand was a 17-game losing streak.
Whoever bookes his position in the finals should be one of the best matches, not only in this tournament, but also in World Cup history. The game giants oppose rising troops.