Even with an Olympic silver medal in her back pocket, Fancy Bermudez is showing few signs of slowing down.
Far from it. In the 12 months since she helped Canada achieve a best finish of third at the Vancouver leg of the HSBC SVNS tour, the 22-year-old speedster’s life and career have undergone a radical metamorphosis.
Embracing the ‘One Squad’ philosophy championed by Rugby Canada chief executive Nathan Bombrys – his attempt to harness this country’s sevens and 15s rugby talent under one flag – the Edmonton-born Bermudez has displayed convincing crossover skills. Case in point, she helped the national 15s team win the Pacific Four Series last May – scoring two tries in Canada’s first victory over the reigning world champion New Zealand Black Ferns – before heading back to sevens to propel Canada to that historic silver in front of 66,000 fans in the Stade de France during the Paris Olympics last July.
Those accolades helped pave the way for a move to Saracens Women in England’s Premiership Women’s Rugby, where she has found a home away from home, living in a house with half-a-dozen other Canadian players.
In fact, so many things have happened that, on the eve of this year’s Vancouver SVNS tournament, which starts Friday, she finds it difficult to pick a favourite moment.
“Honestly, it’s hard to compare, because the One Squad thing is so alive and well; it’s something we hold so true to our hearts,” Bermudez said. “Our success in the Olympics wasn’t just the sevens girls, it was all the 15s girls that came and helped us train. It’s all the knowledge they gave us ... it’s the coaches that were able to go back and forth.”
Unlike global rugby stars such as Canada captain Sophie de Goede or her French counterpart Antoine Dupont, who both converted from the longer, 15-a-side game to the more compressed sevens version of the sport in the run-up to the Olympics, Bermudez went the other way. After leaving home at 16, moving from Alberta to Vancouver Island to become part of the national sevens setup, she eventually made her 15s debut two years ago against South Africa in Spain.
The switch has certainly paid dividends. In addition to last year’s victory in the Pac Four Series – as well as a third-place finish in the WXV tournament in Vancouver last fall – her individual statistics show her aptitude for the 15s game, with eight tries in 15 appearances, including a hat trick in her debut.
“It’s definitely complicated,” she says of the switch. “The hardest thing for me was to wrap my head around a different style of rugby and a different strategy to the game, and then also the game is so much longer.”
De Goede, who is currently rehabbing from an ACL tear, has played alongside Bermudez for Canada and would have done so for Saracens Women this season, but for her injury. For a speed merchant like Bermudez, who plays hooker in the sevens game but as a winger in 15s, De Goede feels the move to the longer version of the sport is a natural fit for her teammate’s skillset.
“There’s a lot of crossover, in terms of learning how to attack a one-v-one,” De Goede said. “So Fancy, one of her biggest points of difference as a winger in 15s is her ability to win her one-v-ones and draw in other defenders and either finish from there or find an offload. And I think a lot of that comes from growing up playing sevens.”
Back in Vancouver to suit up for the sevens team again – Canada’s women open against Brazil on Friday before wrapping up pool play Saturday against Australia – Bermudez will be front and centre once again as one of nine returning players from the Paris Olympics.
The tournament will also be something of a poignant moment for Canadian rugby, with the men’s seven squad taking part in an invitational tournament apart from the main tour, after the team was relegated from it last year. With the men’s 15s team also languishing at 23rd in the world rankings, the success of the women’s teams is very much flying the flag for Canada at present.
Their place at the vanguard of the sport in this country may well increase as the year goes on, with the Women’s Rugby World Cup set to kick off in England in August. Given the team’s rise to No. 2 in the world rankings – behind the host – Bermudez and others believe they have every right to enter the tournament with confidence.
“I believe wholeheartedly that we can win the World Cup, and that if we get the things right that we need to get right, that it isn’t a far reach,” she said. “I do genuinely believe we are contenders, and I just kind of want to prove that to the world.”
Much like the ascension of the women’s soccer team following its Olympic gold-medal victory in Tokyo four years ago, this country’s rugby players feel that fan interest has been piqued and continued success will simply push that skyward.
De Goede, who is six months out from knee surgery and aiming to get back on the pitch sometime this summer in her attempt to take part in her second World Cup – after captaining Canada to a fourth-place finish four years ago – is aware of the opportunity for her and her teammates.
“I think we know that currently, our men’s team is struggling and trying to get back on the rise, and so it’s our women’s teams that are holding the flag and trying to really promote rugby in Canada,” she said.
“We know that if we can win a World Cup, we can help this sport explode and really promote it within our country and … the immensity of that is not lost on us.”
And while De Goede – who at 25 is only three years older than Bermudez – is trying to stay in the moment as she works on her rehab, she’s not just tantalized by opportunities presented by this year’s World Cup, but even the four-year cycle that lies beyond it. It’s players like Bermudez that are whetting that appetite.
“I know that we’re going to be in good hands,” she said.
“We’re bringing more and more players through that have a name and a profile on the global stage, and players like Fancy are bringing a lot of notoriety and a lot of respect back to Rugby Canada. And so it’s really exciting to think of where she’s going to take it.”