Six-star Schell shines for Canada

Julia Schell revealed that it was inspiration from the crowd that helped her stellar day as she racked up six tries for Canada on their opening day victory at the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup.

The Trailfinders full-back took over the game in York with six tries in just 22 second-half-minutes in the 65-7 victory.

The world’s number two side were already in control against the Fijiana before Schell’s masterclass, but a nudge from the crowd ended up spurring her on.

She explained: “The support was amazing. Before I scored my first try, a guy over there [pointing] said he would give me £200. I’m not very good at math but I need to go talk to him probably.

“As a team we started off maybe not as we wanted to, so we had some really calm chats at half-time, figured out where we could ramp it, and really delivered it up in the second half.”

Outrageous from Julia Schell 🪩

The @TrailfindersW star has SIX tries for Canada against Fiji 🤯#PWR #RWC2025pic.twitter.com/kiGMRmRZL0

— Premiership Women's Rugby (@ThePWR) August 23, 2025

Saracens second row Sophie de Goede had got the ball rolling after just five minutes with a charge off the back of a lineout before later combining with her club colleague Alysha Corrigan to bring up the bonus point after just 29 minutes.

Leading 24-0 at the break, Canada then conceded for the first time as Kolora Lomani finished off a brilliant team try for Fiji.

But from then on, it was all Schell, as she scored three times in four minutes and then six in all.

Skipper Alex Tessier, of Exeter Chiefs, was thrilled at the way the team was able to take their chances, making the most of every gap in the defence.

She said: “That’s a very good win for us. We remained in control. That was our key points today; to retain the ball and be clinical in attack. We managed to stay composed throughout the game and then put a lot of points on the board. I think that’s very satisfying for a start.

“The way we started, we got a little bit excited. Cleaning up those little extra offloads will be key [going forward]. We also need to remain disciplined in defence. We got penalised too many times, particularly in the first half. That’s something to build on next week.

“We need to keep it one game at a time, switching our mindset to the Welsh team; that will be different to today.”