Alysha Corrigan is growing accustomed to showpiece finals. The Saracens centre goes into Sunday’s Premiership Women’s Rugby climax against holders Gloucester-Hartpury comforted by the knowledge that she excelled in a grander-scale event nine months ago.
The Olympic sevens showdown with New Zealand was the game that stopped an island. Her island.
The last time Prince Edward Island, Canada’s smallest province, had experienced the sense of local pride imbued by one of their own winning a summer Olympic medal had been 112 years previously. Corrigan’s silver medal from Paris trumped Bill Halpenny’s bronze in the 1912 pole vault, which was something of a charity award in any case as he actually finished tied for fourth.
She returned home to a hero’s reception after scoring a try in a dramatic final in which the Kiwis overturned a half-time deficit to deny Canada a fairytale gold.
“We did something amazing but we were so close to something even more amazing. It was a great experience,” said the 28-year-old.
“It was so cool walking out of my house afterwards and multiple people coming up to me every day and congratulating me and telling me they had watched rugby for the first time and they were rugby fans now. It was so funny hearing people’s stories. ‘I was at work and I told my patient that I’d be 14 minutes,’ or, ‘You can come in but you have to watch the game with me.’ It was pretty special to have the whole island behind me and supporting me.
“The story I always come back to is playing France in the quarter-final. When France ran out at the Stade de France, the ground was literally shaking with the noise. I’ve never experienced anything like it. That will always be a very special core memory from those Olympics.”
Her rural upbringing on the island — the setting for the novel Anne of Green Gables in the remote east of Canada — did not equip her for crowds of 80,000.
“I actually grew up on a road called Corrigan Road, named after my grandfather. It was a dirt road with maybe ten houses along it. I had my grandparents live right beside me,” she said.
“We had some farm animals in the backyard and it was a case of playing outside until it got dark with my two elder sisters every day. In summer we would drive ten minutes to a beautiful beach. It was a super small-town vibe and a real outdoorsy sort of life.”
London, her temporary home as a Saracens player, feels — like Paris — rather different.
“It was a bit of a culture shock at first,” Corrigan admitted. “But it’s exciting and there’s definitely lots more to do even if there’s a lot less green space.”
This is her second stint with the club, and during the first Saracens reach two finals, losing out in 2021 before lifting the trophy the following year. Her two tries in the semi-final a fortnight ago against Harlequins booked Saracens’ first final appearance since then.
Controversially, they will have home advantage against the holders with the final having been awarded to the StoneX Stadium at the start of the season.
“I remember when Gloucester hosted the final and they were in it there was a big uproar,” she said.
“You bid so early on in the season to host a final and then it’s a case of whether or not your team makes it there. It’s nice not to have to travel and we feel comfortable at the stadium but at the end of the day a field is a field. I know Gloucester are not going to let a home field advantage stop them from playing a great game.”
It will be a big event for sure, but there is an even bigger one looming on the horizon — one that ends in Twickenham in September.
The Women’s Rugby World Cup is coming to England and Corrigan, back in Canada’s 15-a-side programme, has one eye on it already.
Another final appearance? Perhaps Canada v England this time?
“Hopefully. At a sold-out Twickenham Stadium. You can’t ask for much more,” she said. “I think it’s just going to be history in the making and it would be cool to be able to be a part of that history.”
Gloucester-Hartpury v Saracens
Premiership Women’s Rugby final
Sunday, 2pm
TV TNT Sports 1, Discovery+
