{"id":52969,"date":"2025-08-07T21:36:23","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T21:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/52969\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T21:36:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T21:36:23","slug":"canada-readies-itself-for-rugby-world-cup-with-final-test-match-against-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/52969\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada readies itself for Rugby World Cup with final test match against Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Canada’s Alysha Corrigan, right, tries to elude Ireland’s Fiona Tuite during WXV 1 women’s rugby union action, in Langley, B.C., Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024.ETHAN CAIRNS\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Canada coach Kevin Rouet has made three changes to his lineup for Saturday\u2019s test match against No. 5 Ireland, the second-ranked Canadians\u2019 last outing ahead of the Rugby World Cup. <\/p>\n

Caroline Crossley slots into the back row, replacing Gabby Senft, with Fabiola Forteza shifting to No. 8. Justine Pelletier, who came off the bench in Canada\u2019s 42-10 win over the 10th-ranked United States in Ottawa last Friday, starts at scrum half while Olivia Apps moves to the bench. Alysha Corrigan returns at wing after an injury absence. <\/p>\n

Senft is being rested while Pelletier offers a different profile at No. 9, with Apps providing a pacey alternative off the bench. <\/p>\n

Back Sarah-Maude Lachance, among the replacements, is in line for her first appearance since May 2 when she came off the bench to score a try against the U.S. in Pacific Four Series play in Kansas City. <\/p>\n

Rouet said he has minimized the roster changes, looking for some consistency ahead of the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Steve Meehan takes on the task of resurrecting Canada’s men’s rugby team<\/a><\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s game is at Affidea Stadium, formerly known as Kingspan Stadium, in Belfast.<\/p>\n

The teams last met in October at the WXV 1 tournament, with Canada winning 21-8 in Langley, B.C. Canada is 3-1-0 all-time against the Irish, also winning 48-17 in Dublin in 2016 and 57-0 at the 2002 World Cup, and losing 15-8 in 2006 in Galway.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe World Cup is right around the corner, so this last warm-up game is going to very important for the team,\u201d Rouet said in a statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been building for the last three years, so I know we are ready for the World Cup, but this game against Ireland is one last opportunity to focus on the details of our game and system to make sure we are as prepared as possible for the World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cIreland will be a tough opponent, they showed that to us last year at WXV, so we have to be ready for the challenge on Saturday. They are a top-five team in the world.\u201d <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Layne Morgan of the Wallaroos is tackled by Justine Pelletier of Canada during the Pacific Four Series match between Australia Wallaroos and Canada at Suncorp Stadium on May 23, 2025 in Brisbane, Australia.Chris Hyde\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Irish coach Scott Bemand has made 10 changes to the starting lineup that rallied from a 14-0 deficit to beat No. 8 Scotland 27-21 last weekend in Cork. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great chance for us to see how far we\u2019ve come,\u201d Bemand, speaking after the win over Scotland, said of the Canada test. \u201cWe wanted to build performance momentum, and there\u2019s areas of that game where we can say we have.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got new caps on the pitch, we\u2019re building our depth all the time. Now we\u2019re ready to go and test it against a World Cup contender.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Irish players will be motivated with their World Cup roster set to be announced Monday. <\/p>\n

Rouet, meanwhile, is giving his team five days off after the Ireland match, ahead of the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Canada, which finished fourth at the last World Cup in November 2022, opens tournament play in England against No. 14 Fiji on Aug. 23 in York, then faces No. 9 Wales on Aug. 30 in Manchester and Scotland on Sept. 6 in Exeter.<\/p>\n

The Irish, who finished third in Six Nations play this year at 2-3-0 behind No. 1 England and No. 4 France, are in Pool C with No. 3 New Zealand, No. 11 Japan and No. 13 Spain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Canada’s Alysha Corrigan, right, tries to elude Ireland’s Fiona Tuite during WXV 1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-52969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}