One of the keys to staying calm in the cauldron of a Rugby World Cup final is being able to control your breathing. Fortunately for Canada's Gabrielle Senft, she has a lot of experience of that.
The dynamic back rower has a rare hobby outside of rugby; spear fishing and free diving, which was introduced to her by Hayden Thompson-Stringer, one of her coaches at Exeter.
"He said, ‘Do you want to come learn how to free dive and spearfish and I'll teach you?’ And I said, ‘Sure, why not?" she recalls.
Venturing along the Devon coast, she began going several times a week, learning how to free dive, hold her breath, and eventually spear fish.
Through free diving, Senft has trained her body and mind to remain calm under pressure, and can now hold her breath for up to two and a half minutes. Despite the seeming contrast between free diving and rugby, Senft finds clear connections: the serenity she experiences underwater translates to composure on the pitch.
"When I'm down at the bottom of the ocean hanging out at you’re at your calmest, you've hit the descent," she says. "It's when you're the most calm, you're observing.
"It's just you and nothing around you, you're not thinking about anything, and that's kind of how I feel in the field, which kind of sounds crazy because there's so much going on in a rugby game.
"But when you've worked so hard to create those calm moments in a game that it's just like, nothing else is existing around you.
"You're not worried about the fans, you're not worrying about external noises. It's just you in the game and what's in front of you."
The sense of calm she has gained is one she believes would benefit other players on the field.
"I always think about the 15s in the back of the field because I think they would get a little bit more calmness than maybe me," she explains.
The 28-year-old has not had time to complete a dive during Rugby World Cup 2025, something she feels would have been helpful given the way it helps to recentre her as the the long tournament takes its toll.
Particularly this week, as Canada prepare to take on England at a sold-out final at Allianz Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
"I haven't been able to do it in some time just with so much travelling and not staying in the same place and renting the gear gets quite pricey," she said.
"Free diving is such a great thing to go and to have in terms of neutralising that pressure and just making sure that you have other things outside of being a rugby player. Free diving is my favourite for sure."
