2025 and all that: Red Roses ready to reignite Canada rivalry after World Cup win

One year on from the epic final women’s rugby is flourishing in both nations while England are aiming to take their successive win total to 40 games

Train like you have never won, play like you don’t know how to lose. That is the mantra scribbled on a whiteboard in the Red Roses camp this week as they prepare to take on Canada for the first time since defeating them in the 2025 Rugby World Cup final .

The game at Sandy Park on Saturday will be a week shy of the first anniversary of the Twickenham showpiece in front of a record‑breaking crowd of 81,885. It is the fans that come to mind when players remember that day: the thousands waiting for both teams to get off buses, the noise in the stadium and the reality of a full ground after months of speaking about what it might be like to play in front of that many people.