Canada have prepared for the atmosphere of Saturday’s sold-out World Cup final against England at Twickenham by training with headphones on.
Approximately 82,000 fans are set to be at Allianz Stadium in south-west London, which will smash the record attendance for a women’s rugby match.
The vast majority of those supporters will be cheering on the Red Roses as underdogs Canada, who sit second in the world rankings, seek to spring an upset.
Canada wing Asia Hogan-Rochester is among the players with experience of playing in front of a huge crowd, having represented her country at last year’s Paris Olympics when an unprecedented 66,000 people watched the opening day of the women’s rugby sevens programme at Stade de France.
“I feel like after a certain amount of thousands, it’s all just noise and you can’t hear each other either way,” the 26-year-old said.
“There’s also that home crowd element as well.
“We did a really cool training exercise of just putting headphones on so we couldn’t hear each other and just really focusing on communication.
“We’re kind of a team that reads each other’s minds when we play so I’m just really excited for it. We’re locked in.”
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The existing attendance record for a women’s 15s fixture is 58,498, set as England clinched the 2023 Six Nations Grand Slam by beating France 38-33 at Twickenham.
Canada’s squad initially had crowd noise from a football match played into their ears during the experimental training session.
But, due to problems syncing the sound, a large speaker was brought in, with the headphones kept on to continue hindering communication.
Head coach Kevin Rouet said: “[It was] just to get to used to the noise and not being able to hear each other because we know that will be a factor.
“[It was] just to also change the synergy of the practice, having more fun and releasing the pressure. It was just an idea. Whether it works or not, we will never know.”
Canada will climb to the top of the world rankings — above England — by snatching glory with a shock victory.
Rouet’s side defeated defending champions New Zealand 34-19 in the semi-finals after overcoming Australia in the last eight and beating Fiji, Wales and Scotland in the pool stage.
Hogan-Rochester, who has scored three tries during the tournament, said: “I feel like we haven’t seen everything yet, and we’ve still seen a lot of great things.
“This squad is definitely a squad that plays without limits. There’s no perfect game of rugby but I feel there’s still so much to give from the team.”
