Same Rivalry, Smaller Ball: What We’ll Be Watching Tonight

The Canada women’s national rugby union team plays world-champion England today at BMO Field in Toronto as part of The Rugby Rematch Tour, and Sarah and I have tickets! Woohoo! See Canadian women’s rugby aims to deal England its 1st loss in 41 matches during upcoming double-header.

A few years ago, I blogged about the controversy over the proposed smaller ball in women’s rugby and tonight, the women will use the smaller ball. The game is Canada vs. England but the real experiment might be the ball size.

World Rugby introduced a trial using a size 4.5 rugby ball (about 3% smaller than a standard size 5, but weighing the same) across the women’s Sevens circuit and the 2026 WXV Global Series—featuring high-profile matchups between England’s Red Roses and Canada.

In favour, see Why I support smaller balls in women’s game: Playing with a smaller rugby ball could improve the women’s game, writes former Red Rose Shaunagh Brown.

Against, read Smaller balls for women’s rugby ‘worst decision ever’.

You can read my older post to see why I’m not convinced.

Do women really need a different sized rugby ball?