Canada Scored 64 With Sophie de Goede on the Bench

Canada beat Scotland 64-26 in Edinburgh on September 12, scoring 10 tries in the WXV Global Series opener with Sophie de Goede on the bench.

Kevin Rouet’s third-ranked side led 31-12 at half-time, took a yellow card and a 20-minute red, and still left Hive Stadium in Edinburgh with a date against England at Sandy Park on September 19, a rematch of last year’s World Cup final.

Canada Scored 64 With Sophie de Goede on the Bench

De Goede, the 2025 World Rugby Women’s 15s Player of the Year, began among the replacements after retaking the captaincy for this campaign. Alexandra Tessier wore the armband in the starting XV, and the pack still laid down five first-half tries before she appeared.

Rugby Canada posted the result from Edinburgh as soon as Holly’s whistle went.

FULL-TIME

Canada’s Women's Rugby Team wins 64-26 over Scotland in Edinburgh.#RugbyCA | #OneSquad | #EarnedNotGiven pic.twitter.com/LCZHF0F6uH

— Rugby Canada (@RugbyCanada) September 12, 2026

The new series puts the top 12 unions on a home-and-away touring model through 2028, with four to six tests each September and October. Canada already hold a 2029 World Cup place from last year’s semi-final run, so this window is about the standard of the side Rouet can put out, not about staying in the draw.

Scotland had won one of eight previous meetings, that lone success coming at the 1994 World Cup in this city. Canada won the most recent one 40-19 in the 2025 World Cup pool at Sandy Park, and the last trip to Scotland, at Scotstoun in 2018, finished 28-25. The gap on Saturday was wider than either of those nights.

Ten Tries, Two Cards, One Afternoon in Edinburgh

Claire Gallagher converted seven of Canada’s 10 tries. Helen Nelson kicked three of Scotland’s four. The first half was over as a contest by the time Julia Omokhuale dotted down from a metre, yet Scotland still found two tries before the break and two more after it.

HOW THE POINTS LANDED

Hooker Kiki Idowu’s early offload put lock Rachel Smith into space, and Lizzie Gibson finished under the posts for the opening score. Olivia Apps was hauled down by her shorts on the next attack, then picked from the ruck and went over in the corner when the short side was empty.

THE FIRST-HALF TRIES

1. 5 minutes: Lizzie Gibson scores under the posts after the Idowu offload. Canada 7-0.
2. 9 minutes: Olivia Apps darts over in the corner. Conversion missed. Canada 12-0.
3. 15 minutes: Evie Gallagher stretches over on her first Test start since the World Cup. Helen Nelson converts. Scotland 7-12.
4. 17 minutes: Gibson bursts through for her second, straight after the restart. Canada 19-7.
5. 25 minutes: Brittany Kassil finishes a quick-tap move from close range. Canada 26-7.
6. 28 minutes: Julia Omokhuale scores from a metre after Fancy Bermudez’s carry. Canada 31-7.
7. 33 minutes: Shona Campbell finishes after Rhea Clarke strips Apps and Gallagher breaks. Conversion missed. Scotland 12-31 at the break.

Gibson’s second try arrived two minutes after Gallagher’s reply, which is the passage Scotland will hate on the tape. Canada were already far enough ahead that a yellow and a 20-minute red in the second half never turned the afternoon back into a fight.

Taylor Perry glided through a hole at 42 minutes. Apps added her second at 49 minutes, Pelletier sniped after coming on around the 50-minute mark, Gabrielle Senft powered over at 74 minutes, and Savannah Bauder rounded the cover at 78 minutes on her 15s debut. Lana Skeldon and Rhona Lloyd crossed for Scotland in that same half, Lloyd finishing a dink from Nelson, but each Canadian answer came almost on the next attack.

The Scrum-Half England Have to Slow Down

Olivia Apps, who added a Premiership Women’s Rugby title this season, was player of the match after two tries, a third chalked off, and 50 minutes of tempo that Scotland could not live with. Canada rated her a 9. England have to slow that service at Sandy Park or the same short-side gaps will open again.

Appsolutely unstoppable against Scotland🇨🇦

Our Player of the Match😎

***

Apps s'est montré imparable face à l'Écosse🇨🇦

Notre joueur de la rencontre😎#EarnedNotGiven #RugbyCA #OneSquad pic.twitter.com/HoEnKxvSVy

— Rugby Canada (@RugbyCanada) September 12, 2026

The disallowed score was her second of the first half on the field, killed by the TMO for obstruction off the ball, with Senft the player in the way. A separate Canadian try for Charity Williams had already gone for a knock-on a few phases earlier. Apps still left the pitch with the contest settled and Justine Pelletier immediately picking from the base to push Canada past 50 points.

Gibson earned an 8 for the two early tries and her work at the breakdown, the clearest forward on the park before the benches emptied. Perry, Idowu, Bermudez and Omokhuale each put in strong carries around that; Tessier’s job was quieter, keeping the centres connected while the scoreboard moved. Claire Gallagher’s 7 from 10 off the tee was enough on a day when Canada did not need the extras.

Kassil’s High Tackle and the 13-Player Spell

Kassil had already scored the bonus-point try when her head-on-head contact with Meryl Smith brought a yellow that was upgraded. The 20-minute red arrived in the 56th minute. Senft had been sent to the bin four minutes earlier for a side entry, so Canada went to 13 until Senft returned at 62 minutes, then played with 14 until a replacement could come on at 76.

HOW THE 20-MINUTE RED WORKS

• The player: She leaves for the rest of the match and cannot return.
• The team: A replacement may restore a full 15 after 20 minutes.
• A full red: Referees can still issue a permanent red, with no replacement, for foul play judged deliberate and highly dangerous.

That is the 20-minute red card trial World Rugby moved into elite rugby in 2025, and it is why a high tackle at 56 minutes did not leave Canada a player short until the end. Kassil was also pinged at the scrum for dropping her bind. She and Senft were the two Canada 15s rated a 5, even though both still finished on the try sheet, Senft in the last 10 minutes.

England will not offer the same cushion. A six-minute spell at 13 against Scotland ended with Canada still adding points. The same cards at Sandy Park, where England won the World Cup final 33-13 last September, would be a different match.

Sevens Speed Arrives in the 15s Jersey

Rouet handed out three 15s debuts in the same Test, two of them to sevens internationals, and one of those scored the last try of the day.

THREE 15S DEBUTS

• Charity Williams: The two-time Olympic medalist and HSBC SVNS regular started on the wing, looked at home, and had a finish wiped out for an earlier knock-on.
• Savannah Bauder: She debuted on the SVNS Series in 2024, came off the bench here, and beat the cover with pace for the 78th-minute try.
• Sophie McDonald: The third new cap arrived among the forwards and added to the close-in carries once the game was won.

Williams’ disallowed try was the near-miss of the first half, Claire Gallagher popping the ball out of a tackle for the wing to dive over before the TMO went back. Bauder’s finish was the clean version of the same idea, a sevens runner given grass and using it. Pamphinette Buisa, Asia Hogan-Rochester, Emily Tuttosi and Brooke Rempel joined de Goede and Pelletier in a bench that Canada rated a 7 as a unit, which is the point of having that group available when the starting XV has already done the damage.

Omokhuale arrived from a PWR title with Saracens and was, with Gibson, the flanker Scotland could not hold near the line. The production line from English club rugby and from the sevens programme is now sitting in the same 23.

Five Weeks In, Scotland Still Found Four Tries

Dave Butcher took charge after Sione Fukofuka left the job on August 3 to return to his family in Australia. By Saturday he was, in his own words, five weeks into a rebuild, with Rhea Clarke making a first start at scrum-half and Evie Gallagher back from her first Test since the World Cup. Gallagher scored the first Scotland try and made the second for Campbell. Captain Rachel Malcolm, also back from a long injury, led from blindside.

If we’re being really honest, we’re five weeks into a complete rebuild, and if we hadn’t shown an identity of the way we wanted to play based on how we trained, I think that would worry me. However, we’ve seen glimpses of it.

Dave Butcher, interim Scotland head coach, after the Hive Stadium match

Butcher said he was unhappy with the scoreline and happier with the bravery, then named the breakdown and the failure to keep the ball as the parts that disappointed him. Clarke’s strip on Apps, Gallagher’s break, Skeldon’s finish from a lineout drive, and Lloyd’s chase of Nelson’s kick were the passages that matched the brief. The rest of the afternoon was Canada’s recycle against a pack that could not live with the speed of the next phase.

Shona Campbell, who scored the second Scotland try, thanked the home crowd for staying “behind us from minute one to minute 80.” Hive Stadium, next to Murrayfield, will fill again on September 19 when New Zealand arrive at 17:10 BST. Australia come to the same ground on September 26, then Scotland fly for two more tests against the Wallaroos in October. Saturday was the gentlest fixture on that list, and it still finished 64-26.

Sandy Park Is the Match This Scoreline Was Built For

England host Canada at Sandy Park on September 19 at 15:00, the first meeting since the World Cup final at Twickenham, and the first of three WXV dates between the sides. England beat Australia 48-15 in Salford on the same afternoon Canada were in Edinburgh, so both teams open the series with a heavy win and then play each other.

CANADA’S NEXT TESTS

• September 19: England at Sandy Park, Exeter, 15:00, World Cup final rematch.
• September 26: France in the European leg, the third September test of the window.
• October 16 and 23: England again, at BMO Field in Toronto and TD Place Stadium in Ottawa.

De Goede will be available from the start of that run. Kassil’s 20-minute red will go through the usual citing process before Exeter. Apps has already shown, in 50 minutes against a top-seven side, the tempo Canada want to play. Scotland, meanwhile, have to take the same Hive pitch against the Black Ferns seven days after shipping 10 tries, which is a harder exam than the one they have just sat.

Canada can rest a world player of the year, take two cards, and still score 64 against Scotland. The next test is whether any of that still holds when the side that beat them 33-13 last September is waiting in Exeter.