There continues to be misconceptions around the status of the Canadian women: they are professional athletes but contracts, as with most other nations, do not yet compare to England’s women.
The Canadian programme involves a clever strategy of using England’s domestic PWR league to develop its players.
There are 25 Canadians in PWR and the current Canada coaching staff includes Kevin Rouet and Alex Austerberry, who both coach Saracens Women, and Nathan Smith from Loughborough Lightning.
“It’s not like we’re coming in to spy,” joked De Goede. “We just don’t have the quality league [in Canada].”
Canada are not the only country to do this – PWR is littered with top internationals from across the globe.
Mitchell has told BBC Sport that he and Charlie Hayter, head of women’s performance at England Rugby, have lobbied to increase PWR game time for English Qualified Players (EQP) from next season.
Mitchell has frequently pushed his theory that players who can reach 1,000 PWR playing minutes a season “gives them a higher probability” of playing for the Red Roses.
“I haven’t enjoyed seeing young English players between 21 and 23 not getting enough minutes,” he said.
“I think that number [1,000] is very meaningful.”
The RFU confirmed to BBC Sport the current requirements around 13 EQP players on average across matchday squads will remain. However, the lure of signing foreign talent will be dampened by the removal of club injury credit, which helps cover the cost of replacing an injured player.
From the 2027-28 season, only players who sustain an injury while on international duty for one of England’s representative teams will be eligible.
Besides this, if any EQP player is captured by another union, they will only be able to hold their EQP status until the end of that season.