Marchak on the march with Canada

Marchak, whose parents both played rugby growing up, took the game up at 17 when a team was established at her high school. Rugby she says was a natural fit for her.

Up to then I had played every sport I could get my hands on and because I was athletic and the level I started playing at was pretty basic I had a lot of fun in that first season. There wasnt a whole lot of contact so we ran the ball a lot. I played in Winnipeg for a few seasons after I went to University and then I moved to play for British Columbia which stepped the intensity up for me.

It wasnt long before Marchak caught the eye of the Canada selectors being invited to an U23 camp just a couple of seasons into the sport, and then out of the blue, being selected to tour France with the national senior team just six months before the 2006 Womens Rugby World Cup. That tour, Marchak says, was an eye opener to the toughness of the sport at the top.

It was a difficult tour. We lost the two test games and played all over France meaning we had to stay in some pretty ropey places. It was tough tour mentally and a real eye opener for me. I got ten minutes in one of the games for my first cap. We were down and defending in front of our try line. It was sleeting rain sideways and someone passed me the ball and I dropped it. It was a very difficult first cap but I can look back now and smile because I learned so much about not taking things for granted even if you are playing at the top. It was a steep learning curve.

Marchak did enough to earn selection for the 2006 World Cup which her country hosted and in the intervening years, shes quickly become a team stalwart and a key player for Canada both at 7s and 15s level.

In 2009, she visited London for a few weeks, trained with Saracens where fellow Canadians Sarah Ulmer and Leslie Cripps were already stationed, and vowed to come back for a season after the World Cup.

I loved it right away. The players at Saracens were fantastic and I have no regrets about coming here to play rugby. The Premiership is a fantastic league to play in and in many ways it can be like playing in an international game ever week - the quality is top notch and I have never experienced anything like it outside of a game for Canada. I had never really watched rugby properly going up and never really analysed my game and my technique. Being here you have to do that you cant go out there and run over people, and I have got to know the game so much more while playing for Saracens.

Marchaks memories of London when she does return to Canada will be mostly positive but the bitter disappointment of missing out on a World Cup semi-final spot in 2010 still bites.

Canada were cruising in the pool stages ahead of a decider against France who were decidedly shaky coming through the group with the Canadians going into the match clear favourites for a final four berth. Canada were well beaten on the day and were left relying on results elsewhere which didnt go their way and limped out of the tournament eventually finishing 6th having been beaten by rivals USA in the final match.

I dont enjoy looking back on it, Marchak says.

We had the best team going into that tournament that we ever had, and we were confident. But I think we were guilty of just playing right into the French game-plan and we didnt change things quick enough. What was frustrating was that France hadnt really turned up yet that tournament they had almost lost to Sweden and werent near their stride. They are our bogey team somewhat, we always find it tough against them and they just did one over on us. The USA result afterwards was a disappointment but losing the France game meant that we were in a difficult place and we were going to be relying on other scores going our way so our energy was drained and it was difficult to play that last game.

Things have been hugely positive since the World Cup. New head coach John Tait has overseen major 7s wins in Hong Kong, Amsterdam and Las Vegas with Marchak leading the team, and Canada reached the final of the Nations Cup this summer with a hugely new-look squad.

John is wonderful and he has really taken a lot of time to look at our structure. We beat the US comfortably at this years Nations Cup and we havent done that in a while. When we play them it is usually a physical scrap and if you play into that its always tough. They are a hugely physical team and this time we went there and played an outside game and it was a smart win. I was happy with this years Nations Cup and I said at the end that if this was the team we had at the next World Cup with three years together we would be in a good place. We lost so many players after the World Cup so to come together and play well together puts us in a really good position to build on things. John has brought a lot of young players in already because he wants to look at them early and I am positive about our progress.

Meanwhile Canada have yet to fully declare on how their funding will be allocated to their 7s programme and with nations like Holland already taking the step to go professional, Marchak has no doubt there are huge changes coming for the game.

For countries like say China and Russia it will be easy for them to advance their 7s programmes, they arent starting from a position of having to worry about the impact it might have on the 15s game but for us and other teams there will need to be a bit of a balance. Different countries will manage that in different ways, there isnt a blueprint for it so its going to be interesting.