Pam Buisa plays first cap in hometown as Canada steamrolls rival USA in front of record-setting crowd at TD Place

By Tyler Reis-Sanford

With a record-breaking audience of 11,453 in attendance on Friday night at TD Place, local players Pam Buisa and Claire Gallagher and the Canadian women’s rugby team overwhelmed the rival U.S. side in a 42-10 victory for their 11th win in a row against the Americans.

The crowd was a North American record for a standalone women’s rugby match, and the support in the nation’s capital was palpable.

“Honestly I’m just so excited to be able to play in front of my family and friends. Earlier this week I saw one of my high school coaches who first taught me to play rugby – Mr. Clair shoutout to you,” smiled Ottawa Irish product Pam Buisa of Gatineau. “It’s so amazing. It’s a full circle moment. This is where I started – it started with this community, and to see them all in the stands, it’s just such an honour for me to have that opportunity.”

The No. 2 internationally-ranked Canadian women fell behind early, turning over the ball at the kick-off, which led to a quick try from USA’s Freda Tafuna just over a minute into the match. From there, Canada was dominant for most of the first half, but costly mistakes kept them from converting strong scoring opportunities.

Despite conceding 11 penalties, more than double the five of the Americans, Canada managed to go into the half with a 14-10 lead. Canada’s head coach Kevin Rouet had a simple message for the Canadians at the break, to clean up the errors.

“There were a couple of things on the line-outs, on the counter-attack, even defensively we were too passive,” recounted Rouet. “Our defensive line speed was so much better in the second half than in the first half, so it shows that it’s a lack of effort. We knew what to fix, but sometimes you need halftime to restart the momentum.”

The second half saw Canada come to life, with number 8 Gabrielle Senft scoring off a crushing Canadian maul, just minutes after American winger Cheta Emba was given a yellow card for an intentional knock-down.

For the remainder of the second half, the Canadians’ talent and discipline shone through, keeping the American’s scoreless for the remainder of the game and tallying just five penalties to the 15 of the Americans.

Buisa, who was named to the 2025 World Cup squad, is no stranger to putting on the red and white to represent her country, including the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 for rugby sevens. But Friday’s game against the rival USA squad was the first time she’s gotten to represent Canada in Ottawa.

Buisa was also at Twin Elm Rugby Park earlier in the week with her teammates for an open practice and community engagement event.

“I got to see my old rugby club, the Ottawa Irish there, that really touched my heart knowing that’s where I started,” said Buisa, who is now based at the women’s national team’s home in Langford, B.C. “To see the amount of young people playing rugby, to see the effort put in at a community and grassroots level, it’s been really exciting to see how much the game has grown.”

Former University of Ottawa Gee-Gee and Canada’s starting fly-half Claire Gallagher played the full 80 minutes, fuelled by the overwhelming support of a hometown crowd.

“I think we had a whole Gee-Gees box up there,” Gallagher signalled. “When we played them in Kansas, we definitely felt the pressure from the U.S. fans, we were looking forward to that being reversed tonight. We didn’t start that great, but we rallied and the crowd got behind us and helped a lot.”

Buisa, Gallagher and the rest of team Canada will face #5 ranked Ireland side on Aug. 9, their final tune-up before the 2025 Rugby World Cup in England. Canada enters the tournament at the top of their pool, joined by Scotland, Wales and Fiji.

Read More: HIGH ACHIEVERS: Canadian women’s rugby team striving for first World Cup title

Since placing fourth in the 2021 World Cup, Canada has been dominant with a 15-5-1 record. Four of the losses were to the No. 1 ranked England squad, and the other loss and the tie were both to No. 3 New Zealand.

“When you are second in the world, the expectation is to win,” Rouet said when asked about his expectations for the team at the World Cup. “We’re going to do everything we can to win.”