Taylor Perry Returns to Oakville With Canada's Rugby Team

Canada's national women's rugby team spent Thanksgiving Monday practising in Oakville, on the same grass one of its players grew up on. Rugby Canada brought the squad to the Oakville Crusaders facility, where club players and their families watched the session from the sidelines.

Taylor Perry, a former Crusader, was on the pitch with them. "It feels pretty surreal," she said. "These are the pitches that I played on when I was 10 years old so it's awesome to be back here." Perry credits the club with spotting players and moving them up as they were ready for a higher level.

From Oakville she went on to Queen's University and its rugby team, and Canada scouted her at the youth level. A place on the 2018 Youth Olympic Games roster followed, along with a bronze medal, and she was named to the senior national team in 2020.

A serious injury then took her out of the 2021 Rugby World Cup. She worked her way back and played for Canada at the Paris Olympics in 2024, where the team came home with silver. On the club side she has spent the past six seasons with the Exeter Chiefs in England.

England is the opponent again on Friday, and that is a side Canada has struggled against before. Perry expects the home crowd to change the feel of the match. "It's going to be fun and we will be putting England in our shoes, we often have to travel to them and hear their crowd and now they get to come to our field and play against our crowd," she said. Kickoff at BMO Field is 7 p.m.