'I’ll prove you wrong': How Laetitia Royer overcame RWC 2021 heartbreak

When Laetitia Royer was told she had not been selected for the 2021 Women’s Rugby World Cup she only had four words for Canada head coach, Kévin Rouet.

“I’ll prove you wrong.”

Almost three years on from that day, Royer has almost certainly done just that.

Forced to watch on as her international teammates finished fourth overall in New Zealand from the injury reserve list, it is now hard to imagine a Canada team without the 34-year-old named at lock forward.

Royer was named in the World Rugby Women’s 15s Dream Team of the Year alongside fellow Canadians Sophie de Goede and Alex Tessier, underlining her importance to Rouet’s team.

Invited to Monaco to tread the red carpet with her fellow Quebecois, Tessier, that trip to the Mediterranean provided a poignant moment for the duo.

“For us too, after the last World Cup (cycle) we were both like; I want more,” Royer said.

“Our little circle of Quebec girls just finished after the World Cup. But me and Tess weren’t. That made us both say, ‘I’m going for it’.

“It was the first time I have had outside validation because my validation is that I want to be a team that makes my team great and what my team give back to me is validation.”

With their new world ranking in hand, Canada became the team to watch at WXV 1 last Autumn.

Hosting the tournament in Vancouver, British Columbia, Royer and her teammates made light work of France and Ireland in their opening fixtures before facing England in the tournament’s finale at BC Place.

Many had the fixture pegged as a preview of the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup final and it certainly delivered.

There was little wiggle room in the clash as first-half tries for Canada’s Justine Pelletier and England’s Maud Muir left the score 7-5 at the break.

Despite England receiving two second-half yellow cards it was the Red Roses that went home with a 21-12 win and a second WXV 1 crown.

Consigned to third place, behind a resurgent Ireland, Royer and her international teammates learned plenty over the course of their three outings.

“The coaches were like ‘this tournament is not the big picture’, this is to build toward the World Cup,” she said. “We didn’t care about the result, basically.

“The last game against England, it didn’t feel like a loss, but we could have definitely won. We were winning and then something shifted.

“We installed in their brains that we were going to win. That’s a win in itself. It’s a ‘We’ll see you later’ kind of thing.

“We have to go through England if we want to win a World Cup.

“They are the one team we haven’t beaten yet. That is our personal challenge.

“But we are not studying England every week.”

There are three months until Royer returns to international rugby.

The 2025 edition of the Pacific Four Series will allow Canada another chance to flex their muscles and cement themselves as favourites for this year’s World Cup, but in the meantime, players will have to return to day-to-day life.

For some that is competing in HSBC SVNS, and for others it is Premiership Women’s Rugby or staying home in Canada, for Royer her next 12 weeks will be in France.

Playing Èlite 1 rugby since 2020, the 34-year-old is in the midst of a title race with ASM Romagnat who are currently second in the league table.

Using Rugby Quebec’s connection with France to move across the Atlantic to pursue a rugby-playing career, Royer spent two years with Lons Section Paloise before moving to ASM Romagnat.

Only taking up rugby in 2016 before successive ACL injuries meant that she missed out on two years of rugby before a return to university rugby in 2019 for the Concordia Stingers.

But unlike Premiership Women’s Rugby, Élite 1 does not have professional status and Royer works three hours a day at ASM Omnisports, helping young athletes with their schoolwork.

Admitting that it is not a career path she sees her long-term future in, Royer says that the sacrifices she has made in her personal life outweigh her professional ones.

“It’s not the professional sacrifices that were hard,” Royer said. “I always wanted to be a pro athlete. That’s what I am good at and expressed myself better and my path to be better as a human.

“For me, the sacrifice is that my boyfriend, my family and my friends are over there. Leaving my boyfriend is like leaving my inner peace and calm at home. It’s really hard sometimes.”

A smile crept across Royer’s face when the topic of 2025 was brought up.

Just the notion of what is on offer this year is abundantly clear just from mentioning the year and asking what her ambitions are.

“Apart from winning the World Cup?” she grinned.

Already as January ends, Royer has planned these next 12 months in the finest detail.

Breaking the months down into the aspects of the game that she wants to focus on and have the most impact on the pitch for both club and country.

“For me, it [2025] would be to work on my art and control the environment and express myself and seeing that player that I see in my head every day,” Royer said.

“It is really being able to keep a calm and balanced space while reaching that gold medal. Overachievers like us, we want to do, do, do, but we need to find that balance of keeping connected with your inner peace.”

Canada’s World Cup campaign will start on Saturday 23 August against Fiji in York, before playing Wales and Scotland in Pool B.

Coming into the tournament with such a positive body of work behind them from last year, teams will try to pose more questions of the Canadians and suppress the style of rugby that helped the team leapfrog New Zealand and France in the World Rugby rankings.

After years of being the chasers this change in role and having a target on their back is not lost on Royer, who wants Canada to keep utilising the same drive and motivation which has them on the doorstep of greatness.

“Keep the faith and the trust within each other,” Royer said. “I think we are on a great path.

“The main thing is that we believe that we have everything we need within ourselves. We have devoted athletes and devoted coaches. We cannot ask for more.

“The only thing is financial help. But we have shown we are able to do it without it.

“That just shows that we are hungrier, and we know what being hungry means.”