Ghislaine Landry is known as the ‘Pocket Rocket’, and for good reason: she’s led the World Rugby Women’s Sevens series in scoring the past two years.

The Toronto native will play a key role for Canada in Rio, where rugby sevens will make its Olympic debut. She spoke to Postmedia recently about why people will like the sport, her lofty goals for Rio and more.

Q: If you had to describe rugby sevens to someone who doesn’t know the game very well, how would you describe it?

A: I would describe rugby sevens as an incredibly fast-paced game. The speed, the power, the athleticism that it involves is incredible and it’s very viewer-friendly. There’s only seven people on the pitch per team. There’s tons of space. It’s really easy to understand. And I think the biggest thing is that it’s exciting.

Q: How did you get in to the sport?

A: I started playing rugby in Grade 9 at high school. It was a pretty popular sport at my high school, actually, and my sister had played before me and I followed in her footsteps.

Q: So rugby sevens wasn’t your original sport?

A: No, I started playing 15s, played for my high school, played club, played provincial. My first time playing sevens was actually for a national camp, for the national team back then, before we were centralized and carded. It was probably 2007.

Q: Had you even heard of rugby sevens when you started playing rugby?

A: A little bit, yeah. We played some club tournaments a bit earlier than that, but it was kind of just floating under the radar.

Q: Had you played it before it became an Olympic sport or did you start afterwards?

A: I started playing rugby well before it was an Olympic sport. I dreamed of going to the Olympics as a kid and I didn’t really know what that was going to look like but I just idolized these Canadian athletes winning and standing on the podium and singing O Canada. But when I started to focus in on sports, it was rugby that was really where I landed. I played soccer for a while, and I just wasn’t happy doing that, but it would have got me to the Olympics. When I shifted to rugby the Olympics weren’t going to be part of that anymore so when it was, it was more the rugby that drew me not the Olympics that brought me there.

Q: What do you think you’d be doing if you weren’t playing rugby?

A: (Laughs) I have no idea what I’d be doing. I went to university and then I’ve played rugby ever since, that’s what I’ve been doing and we’re full-time. There’s definitely passions and hobbies that I’d be doing if I had more time. I would love to get out on another canoe trip, I did that before I played rugby. I spent 42 days on a canoe trip once and it was just one of the most incredible experiences. And I would love to do that, but rugby doesn’t so much accommodate that lifestyle.

Q: What drives you to compete?

A: My main motivation would be my teammates. We train together every day, we put in so many hours, and I see the hard work that everyone does. To know that I’m doing that, not just for myself and my family and the people who’ve supported me, but for the girls that are beside me doing the work and putting in the sweat and the tears and just the sheer amount of time that we spend together.

Q: What’s your biggest strength as an athlete?

A: I think a big strength of mine is a calm head on the field. I think we’re all very physically talented and that’s what got us here, but I’m learning that the mind is such a crucial part, especially in sevens. It’s such a fast game and there’s so much going on and I think I bring a level of calmness that helps not only myself compete but also my teammates around me.

Q: The team has obviously had some success and I’m sure you’re going towards Rio hoping to have more. Do you have a lot of confidence in the way things are coming together?

A: Our goal at the Olympics is to win. We know it’s possible. We’ve won tournaments before. We’ve been ranked top three in the world for the last couple of years, so we know that that’s an achievable goal. Right now, we’ve got a lot to work on before the Olympics and we’re going to do that, but I’m confident in not just the work that we’re going to do, but the work that we’ve done. We’ve been centralized for a few years and all those hard minutes that we’ve put in kind of in the past, I know they’re going to pay off and we’re just going to start to see that snowball. So I’m confident that the goal that we’ve been talking about and have set is achievable and I think it’s going to happen.

Q: Who was your biggest inspiration or someone you look up to?

A: I’ve been looking up to my sister a lot lately. She’s a tough lady and no matter what’s going on, she’s standing tall and she’s kind of given me just this image of someone who, no matter what’s going on, they’re going to stand tall and they’re going to be proud of who they are and it doesn’t really matter what’s going on behind the scenes they can handle it. It’s just this image of strength.