The Canadian women’s rugby team is used to pulling above its weight.

The amateur team is currently ranked second best in the world, despite having only a fraction of the budget of some of its professional competitors.

Now, the women are heading to the 2025 Rugby World Cup with the goal of unseating England to become the best team in the world. But in order to achieve that, they say they need the financial support of Canadians.

“We’ve been fighting against the odds, and in spite of a lot of financial challenges, to get to No. 2,” Sophie de Goede, the team’s captain, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.

“For us to make a jump, that’s where getting more financial aid and resources will really help.”

Outfunded by pro teams in Europe

On Friday, on the eve of International Women’s Day, Rugby Canada launched a national fundraiser on its website called: “Mission: Win Rugby World Cup 2025.”

The sport’s governing body is aiming to raise $1 million to provide the women’s team with extra resources ahead of the 16-team tournament that runs Aug. 22 to Sept. 27 in England.

The funds, it says, will go to things like increased training time, additional players, coaching and room and board.

Thirty per cent of the fundraising goal has already been reached via private donors. And during March, all donations will be matched up to $50,000 by a private donor.

But even if the women get the financial boost they’re seeking from the fundraiser, their funding will fall far behind that of other teams at their level. 

Rugby Canada reported revenue of $15.57 million in 2023 with expenses of $15.12 million. Some $4 million of that revenue came from World Rugby with another $3.35 million coming from Sport Canada.

By comparison, England’s Rugby Football Union recorded revenue of 175.2 million pounds ($325.3 million) in its 2023-24 annual report.

Canada’s team is amateur, which means its players are not paid salaries. That’s not unusual for a national sports team, but it puts them at odds with the other rugby teams at their level, some of which have gone pro in recent years. 

England is currently the top-ranked women’s rugby team in the world, with New Zealand at No. 3 and France at No. 4. All three are professional teams.

“It’s a bit of a paradox, isn’t it?” de Goede said of the team’s outsized success. “It sounds corny, but there’s a really strong care and commitment to each other.”

She’s proud of how much more they’ve done with less, she says, but she doesn’t think it’s sustainable.

“The last World Cup cycle, we weren’t able to get the funds that we needed … and so our time together was greatly impacted,” she said.

“One of the most valuable things we can have going into a big performance is just time together as a team to iron out kinks and also just continue to gel.”

Growing Canada’s rugby culture

While there’s a known disparity between men’s and women’s teams in many sports, de Goede says that’s not the case for rugby in Canada.

Rugby Canada, she says, funds the men’s and women’s teams equally. 

“But we’re just coming from a small resource pool. And so that’s why we’re reaching out to the Canadian public and trying to appeal to them,” she said.

That smaller pool, she says, stems in part from the fact that Canada doesn’t have a strong rugby culture, unlike many other countries around the world. 

It’s something she hopes a World Cup victory could help change.

“I think rugby aligns so well with Canadian values. Like Canadians, we’re hard working, we’re humble, and we just want to go chill and have a beer on the porch and kick our feet back at the end of the day,” she said.

“And that’s rugby, right? We work hard on the field, we tear each other up and then we honestly have a beer with the opposition after the game and have a good time. And we’re a humble group, and a really strong community sport. And so I think it has every reason to take off in Canada.”

De Goede says the sport is especially beneficial for women, and she and her teammates want an opportunity to inspire the next generation of girls to play.

“Rugby is the premier team contact sport that can really empower a young girl and bring her into feeling assertive and feeling a physical presence. And I think that’s so important,” she said.

“We really feel like the visibility that we have with this World Cup opportunity is a time where we can show and introduce young girls to our game of rugby.”