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About 4,700 kilometres from Montreal, across the Atlantic Ocean, a group of 28 Canadian women are hoping to bring back the nation’s first gold medal in a sport that is often overlooked by most Canadians: rugby.

The Women’s Rugby World Cup for rugby fifteens — 15 players from each team on the field at a time — is taking place from Aug. 9 to 26 in Dublin and Belfast, Ireland. Rugby has been gaining steam over the past few years, especially with the inclusion of rugby sevens in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics where Canada won the bronze medal.

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Photo by Dave Lintott / Courtesy of Rugby Canada

And if you ask Frédérique Rajotte and Alexandra Tessier, two of the 10 rookies on the team, the media attention has been intensifying as the competition approaches.

“I think it’s great to put rugby on a pedestal right now because it’s the pinnacle of all competitions,” said Rajotte, a winger. “Definitely the media attention is huge right now, and it’ll gain some steam getting closer to the actual games.”