Canada's women's rugby team, ranked No. 2, fights through funding crisis as it prepares for World Cup

The Canadian women's rugby team, ranked second in the world, is trying to beat the odds — and also cash in on them. 

Last month Rugby Canada launched a fundraising campaign for the women's 15s team to help on their road to the 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup, to be held in various cities in England this August. (The tournament features the 15-player version, as opposed to the sevens team that won silver at the 2024 Paris Olympics, an Olympic best for Canada. Many of the players compete on both teams.)

What the team wants is funding to facilitate time together in camp for training, strategizing, and bonding to help in their goal of winning the World Cup. They're seeking access to mental performance coaching and other necessary resources for an elite team wanting to win and do it in a manner befitting a team that is making history. 

When I heard about the campaign to crowdfund, my initial reaction was to think that the expenses should be covered by the national sporting organization (NSO). 

Why rely on Canadians to keep footing the bill for women to compete? And what happens next year for other teams such as the U20s or the men's side? They will also need financial support. Will the legacy for rugby be that they always have their hands outstretched? 

Programs like Own the Podium have focused on winning as opposed to supporting athletes holistically, growing grassroots and developing sustainable sport in Canada.  We continuously find ourselves in situations where athletes are underfunded. There's no creativity, no innovation in sports models, and little accountability in circumstances of maltreatment, abuse or mismanagement. The government doesn't fund organizations well and then athletes pay for themselves and end up in debt. It feels like Canadian sport is hemorrhaging money. Is crowdfunding really the solution? 

The reality is that it's not that cut and dry. I've been critical of NSOs and the models in the past but we're at a crossroads. We have a brilliantly talented team that can win the World Cup. Is the the choice to either help or not send them? 

I understand why there are naysayers. In 2021 the team was navigating horrible difficulties, reported as "psychological abuse, harassment and/or bullying" in the centralized training environment. A complaint was filed by 37 past and present members of the team and independent review painted a dysfunctional picture of Rugby Canada. A new coach was brought in. The team pulled forward, tackled expectations and forced themselves to be reckoned with as a powerhouse in rugby.

Rugby Canada asked women's team head coach Kevin Rouet what was required for his team's preparation for the World Cup. Rouet came up with a plan that consisted of eights days of a fully-funded training camp (40 people) and a number of warm-up games. Flights, accommodation, proper nutrition, and full support staff including physiotherapy came to about $3.6 million CAD.

According to Nathan Bombrys, Rugby Canada's CEO, they found $2.6 million in their operating budget and they decided to try to raise the balance. 

"We don't have the funding to do some of this," said Bombrys. "We're competing against teams that even if we achieve this extra million, we're still going to be the second or third least-funded team in our tournament, and we're ranked two.

"I'm pretty confident that there might be one, maybe two, teams with less money than our team. And that's, that's not us as the NSO, that's, that's where sport is. You know, it's not a professional sport."

Olivia Apps and Pamphinette Buisa are part of the national rugby program and say the crowdfunding campaign is necessary and appreciated. 

"This is just one of those things that we're trying to do to get more training time together, additional players, coaching, and things like that that will definitely help with getting us more preparation going into the World Cup," Buisa said. "The last World Cup we went to, we didn't have as much time together, and I think that it impacted us going into the World Cup." 

At the most recent World Cup, played in New Zealand in 2022, the team finished fourth out of 12 teams.

"I mean it's definitely not ideal but it's the reality for Canadian rugby players," App said of the crowdfunding campaign. "Our union doesn't have the funds to support us fully — they do the best they can — so we have to rely on public fundraising."

The rugby community is responding. I spoke to a couple of rugby parents who are friends and agreed that this women's team is special. Youth players are excited about this women's team and the campaign was shared in clubs across Ontario. They also confirmed that although rugby is strong in community and helps each other, there is "no money" and some of the players from other teams still have to billet at training camps in Victoria because there isn't money for hotels. 

This isn't an issue of gender. It's not like the men's team gets fully funded and the women don't. It's just a reality for rugby. 

"It is great to have the support from the union, as in they are the ones fundraising and finding the money for us to be able to finish on the podium at the World Cup," Apps said. "In the past it has been players fundraising for themselves so it is a step forward."

If crowdfunding is a bandaid solution for problems that lie deeper in Canadian sport, we still have an obligation to triage, don't we? Some might think elite sport is a privilege, not a right. But I'm not interested in destroying the dreams of talented women because of the systems that are broken. I want to see them try — literally — to win.