INTERVIEW – Alex Tessier, who was voted as a nominee for the World Rugby 15’s Player of the Year, talked about the year 2024 for Rugby Canada.
She also talks in detail about what she hopes to achieve with both teams, the success in the Pacific Four Series, and the state of the game in Canada.
Alex Tessier: Rugby Canada and Plans with the Exeter Chiefs
5. Can you talk about that win last year in the Pacific Four Series and about now being ranked second in the world?
It was definitely a very good year for us. It was an incredible year. Probably moments I will cherish for the rest of my life. We have grown so much. There is no doubt, that since the last World Cup, each time we get together as a team, we grow and we improve a little tiny bit. Each time we see each other, each time we get ourselves into camp and train we grow so much as a group. That is what makes us really strong because we are connected, and we are working with those connections on the field but we also have a strong connection off the field.
Winning the PAC4 (Pacific Four Series) was an incredible step for women’s rugby in Canada. Beating the Black Ferns, who were the champions of the last World Cup, in New Zealand was huge for us and then the fact that it had never been done by a Canadian women’s 15’s national team before. It was such an honour to be part of that. I am super grateful for all the experiences last year and all the years before as well. It’s part of the journey.
I think even though the outcome of the WXV1 competition wasn’t what we wanted, it does show how much work the team has put in. It shows we are still moving forward as a group. The feeling and the vibes were good about the performance that we put up. Obviously, we let ourselves down a little bit in the last match against England.
We could not capitalize on their mistakes and could not capitalize on the opportunities that we created in that match, but we knew we had them. There was a true belief that we had them, we just could not quite finish, but these were just good learnings. That is a key point of our last year, a year of building and a year of improvement before the World Cup. We are definitely in a good spot right now.
6. The 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup is coming up this year, what are the goals that you have with both the Exeter Chiefs and Rugby Canada?
I try to separate them both a little bit. So, when I am here with the Exeter Chiefs, obviously, I am giving my all for the success of the team. The goal with the Chiefs is to win the league. We are in a good position as well, we have 11 wins and two losses, and we are fighting to be in the top four and eventually make it to the semi-final and final.
That is the goal but on a weekly and daily basis, I am always trying to improve myself so that I can benefit the team. Giving my 100%, what that looks like on a weekly basis is training every other day and trying to work on my skills as well as the other things I could bring to this team. These skills that I’ll be able to carry on once the Chiefs season is done.
I am working to help the Chiefs but also when I work on individual skills after training or during training, I am trying to apply stuff that will help me grow as a player and as an athlete. Working week in and week out, to help the Chiefs, but also for when I go back to Canada so I can help the team continue to grow and be ready for the big test matches that we have coming up, including the World Cup.
7. Lastly, can you talk about the positives and negatives of the current state of the rugby union game in Canada?
There are a lot of positives and there are a lot of ways that we can improve in Canada. Simply, the sport is not as well-known as, let’s say, a country like the UK or others in Europe. Every year we fight for more budget and it definitely brings its challenges, but we are slowly improving that. They are slowly funding our teams better and funding our junior programs to help make the sport grow in general.
Canada is such a big country, so just travelling around our own country is hard. For our team, when we have camp in Canada or games in Canada it’s costly because we have to move around.
Maybe, eventually, we will have a women’s league in Canada, to continue to grow the professionalism of women’s rugby. I touched on it earlier, but rugby is not super popular on TV either. It’s very hard to learn about the sport because it’s not easily accessible. So, a little girl or a little boy doesn’t necessarily grow up watching rugby with their parents or just go to a park and see people playing rugby.
On the positive side, with minimal resources, accessibility and then the financial budget, the women’s team has been a successful program for the last decade. I just hope we see continued effort and support that will make it better for the next generations and for the future of this sport, but there is so much potential for rugby in Canada.
Even the seven teams, men’s and women’s, have been doing well in the past. Right now, the women’s team are still doing very well winning silver, at the Olympics. The men are starting to do really good things, but there is a lot to catch up on in both programs. There are a lot of positives but there are also a lot of challenges that, Rugby Canada, is facing currently but making it more accessible to kids growing up will be huge for us as a whole. Simply being able to watch rugby on TV and with a bit more funding into the sport would go a long way. I am convinced.
Alex Tessier: Exeter Chiefs and Rugby Canada
READ MORE: Rugby Canada 15s Women 2024: A Year to Remember Forever
When discussing the Exeter Chiefs, the hope for her is to try to win the title. Unfortunately, for the Chiefs, they were not able to make the playoffs of the 2024–25 Premiership Women’s Rugby competition as they barely lost out to the Bristol Bears for the final playoff spot. Still, Tessier played a critical role for the Chiefs, as she does a lot of the kick conversions for the Chiefs.
As for the state of rugby union in Canada, she is right on the positives of the program, especially on the women’s program. The 7’s team won a silver medal in Paris 2024 and the Rugby Canada women’s national team won the Pacific Four Series last year. It is something both Tessier and the 15’s national team should be very proud of.
READ MORE: Alex Tessier: Growing Up and Playing with Emily Tuttosi (Part One)
However, the lack of professional sports teams in both the men’s and women’s programs is something that needs to be addressed. There is hope though with the Women’s Elite Rugby league, which will start with six teams in 2025 in the U.S. There is a potential of adding at least one team in Canada since the Rugby Canada women’s national team is considered better than the U.S. women’s national team.
There has also been interest in having an MLR team in Toronto and Vancouver, but there is nothing to confirm on that topic as of right now.
The interview took place on January 21, 2025.
A big thanks to the Exeter Chiefs and Alex Tessier for making this interview happen.
Photo Credit: Exeter Chiefs
