(Reuters) – England’s record-breaking Red Roses are only human and Canada will relish being underdogs when the two sides meet in the women’s World Cup semi-finals next weekend, captain Sophie de Goede has said.
England powered into the last four of the tournament with a 29th successive victory in Auckland on Sunday and are clear favourites to land a third world title on Nov. 12.
Standing in their path to the final is a Canadian side who de Goede said would not be turning out at Eden Park on Saturday just to make up the numbers.
“Everyone’s human, we’re all just rugby players,” the goalkicking number eight said after Sunday’s 32-11 win over the United States.
“I don’t know that there’s one recipe to (stopping England). But it’s just remembering that we are all human. There are no machine robots out there playing. We’ll do our best to give them a run for their money next week.”
Canada were beaten 51-12 in their last meeting with England in November 2021 but de Goede said they had been making great strides this season after missing the best part of two years of test rugby because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think every game we’re getting better and every game we go in, do our analysis and we get smarter,” she added.
“We already know that we’re athletic but for us it’s about improving our game management, tactical awareness and we’ve been improving that every game.
“We know we are the underdogs going into this game against England, but it’s a spot we love to be in as Canadians. We’re excited to come out fighting.”
De Goede, whose parents both captained Canada at Rugby World Cups, said she and her team mates would be putting in a lot of homework before Saturday’s clash.
“Their game management is a strength,” she said of England. “We’ll need to do a ton of analysis, not on the individual players, but how they play as they collective. And that’ll be a challenge for us this week, but I’m excited to get at it.”
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
