Canada's run to Women's World Cup final comes as no surprise to Rugby Canada CEO

Canada's run to the final of the Women's Rugby World Cup doesn't come as a surprise to Rugby Canada chief executive officer Nathan Bombrys.

Canada's performance at the tournament has sparked such headlines as BBC's "Fairytale Canada delivers seismic win over New Zealand," CNN's "Crowdfunded Canadian team stuns reigning champion New Zealand to reach Women's Rugby World Cup final" and ESPN's "Canada crowdfunded their way to Women's Rugby World Cup. Now they're in the final."

"I'm surprised that everyone's so surprised," Bombrys said in an interview. "I guess I've been around rugby long enough that people expect the establishment to prevail. We've known how special this team is for a while. But I guess until they prove it on Saturday, people will continue to be surprised."

He believes the second-ranked Canadian women will earn more converts Saturday against top-ranked England before a sellout crowd of 82,000 at Twickenham's Allianz Stadium and a worldwide television audience.

And while showing respect to England's Red Roses, who have won 32 straight matches since losing 34-31 to host New Zealand in the final of the last World Cup in November 2022, Bombrys backs his players.

"Our team is here to win," he said. "Maybe no one else thinks that but they're here to win. And they're going to put it out there Saturday."

Sophie de Goede leads Canada to the Women's Rugby World Cup final

Bombrys also hopes to correct the mistaken view that the Canadian women made it to the tournament cap in hand — only after reaching some 95 per cent of the $1-million target of its "Mission: Win World Cup 2025" fundraising campaign.

"That's not true at all," he said.

Bombrys met with Canada coach Kevin Rouet at last fall's WXV tournament to go over