Canada is preparing for the atmosphere of the sold-out World Cup final against England on Saturday by training with headphones on.
Approximately 82,000 fans will be at Allianz Stadium in southwest London, breaking record attendance at women’s rugby matches.
The majority of these supporters cheer on the red roses, the lesser Canadians, sitting second in the world rankings, seeking upset.
Canada’s Wing Asia Hogan Rochester is one of the players who played in front of a large crowd when 66,000 people watched the first day of the women’s rugby sevens program at Steede de France on behalf of her country at the Parisio Games last year.
“After some thousands, it’s all noise and I feel like I can’t hear each other either way,” the 26-year-old said.
“There’s also a home cloud element.
“We did some really cool training exercises where we simply put on headphones and couldn’t hear each other’s voices and we could concentrate on communication.
“We’re like a team that reads each other’s minds when we play, so I’m really excited about it. We’re locked up.”
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The existing attendance record for the women’s 15S fixture is 58,498, set as England won the 2023 Six Nations Grand Slam to beat France 38-33 at Twickenham.
The Canadian team first had the noise of crowds heard from a soccer match during an experimental training session.
However, due to problems with sound synchronization, large speakers were brought in, and the headphones continued to interfere with communication.
Head coach Kevin Ruwellt said:
“(It was) just to change the synergy of practice, making it more fun and freeing up pressure. It was just an idea. I’ll never know if it works or not.”
Canada will climb to the top of the world rankings above England by robbing its glory with a shocking victory.
Rouet’s team overcame Australia in the last eight times, beating defending champions New Zealand 34-19 in the semi-finals after beating Fiji, Wales and Scotland on the pool stage.
Hogan-Rochester, who scored three tries during the tournament, said: “We feel we haven’t seen everything yet.
“This team is definitely a team that plays without restrictions. There’s no perfect rugby game, but I think there’s still a lot to give from the team.”