Canada prepares for the Women’s Rugby World Cup final with headphones

The Canadian team prepares for the stellar clash in the 2025 Rugby World Cup final against England, a match that promises to break attendance records at Twickenham Stadium. With approximately 82,000 fans eagerly awaiting at London’s Allianz Stadium, this event is expected to surpass the highest attendance mark for a women’s rugby match. Most of the fans will be supporting the “Red Roses”, while Canada, currently in second place in the world ranking, will seek to surprise everyone. Asia Hogan-Rochester, one of the prominent Canadian players, shares experience in this type of scenario. She participated in the Paris Olympic Games last year, where 66,000 spectators witnessed the start of the women’s rugby sevens program at the Stade de France.

I feel like after a certain amount of thousands, it’s all just noise and they can’t hear each other anyway.

Asia Hogan-Rochester

Hogan-Rochester also highlights the importance of communication in the field and the team’s preparation for the stadium environment. “We did a really great training exercise of just putting on headphones so we couldn’t hear each other and really focusing on communication. We are a team that reads each other’s minds when we play, so I’m really excited about that. We are focused,” she added. The current attendance record for a women’s rugby 15s match is 58,498, set when England secured the 2023 Six Nations Grand Slam by defeating France 38-33 at Twickenham. The Canadian team implemented an innovative training session using simulated ambient noise, initially from a soccer game, to adapt to crowd noise. Coach Kevin Rouet explained that the goal was to get the team used to the noise and the difficulty of hearing each other, knowing that this would be an important factor. “It was just to change the synergy of the practice, have more fun and release the pressure. It was just an idea. Whether it works or not, we’ll never know,” he said.

An unexpected victory could take Canada to the top of the world ranking, surpassing England. Rouet’s team demonstrated their ability by defeating the defending champions, New Zealand, with a score of 34-19 in the semi-finals, after beating Australia and overcoming Fiji, Wales and Scotland in the group stage.

I feel like we haven’t seen everything yet, and we’ve already seen a lot of great things. This team is definitely a team that plays without limits. There is no perfect game of rugby, but I feel like there is still a lot to give from the team.

Asia Hogan-Rochester