Harvey and Ratier reflect on past, look to the future after impressive showing by Canada at 2014 IRB Women’s Rugby World Cup

Before she was striking fear in the hearts of opposing countries, Magali Harvey admits being quite scared herself when she first stepped onto the pitch and took up rugby as a high school student in Quebec City. PQ.

"They would just put you on the field and tell you to play," she recalled of her initial encounters being exposed to the sport

Things have changed since those early days.

The 24-year-old has just come off a fantastic showing at the 2014 IRB Women's Rugby World Cup where Canada finished in the second-place, it is the nation's highest achievement in seven appearances at the tournament.

Harvey dazzled on the world stage, combining her kicking prowess and running ability to record 62 points - the second most of any player, including a fabulous try against France in the semi-final. The electrifying end-to-end dash had even casual observers wanting to know more about the athlete they had just witnessed slice through the host nation on an 80-metre try.

Our backline was very agile and able to get me the ball, I heard (teammate) Julianne Zussman say "Go!, Go!," Harvey said of her run while on a conference call organized by Rugby Canada to meet the demand for interview requests for both Harvey and head coach Francois Ratier. "I booked it as fast as I could."

After the tournament she was named the IRB women's player of the year and while Harvey certainly has attracted attention to women's rugby in this country, she is quick to deflect the attention back to the team and rightly so.

"In rugby it's a free-for-all, certain positions stand out more than others, some positions have more runs and others do more of the dirty work," Harvey said. "A lot of people who aren't very knowledgeable don't know that the rest of the team worked extremely well."

Team captain Kelly Russell was also a finalist for player of the year and on Monday the IRB revealed the 2014 World Cup Dream Team. Fans voted in 15 players that would join the four finalists. In all, six Canadians made the list, the most of any nation.

Ratier knew he had a strong talent pool to work with very soon after taking the helm of the national team 14 months ago.

"I put 18 new players on the field against England at the (2013) Nations Cup," he said. "That's when we realized we had the potential to compete with the best in the world."

Canada won the tournament, defeating England twice including the final, but they were unable to replicate the same outcome on Sunday when they met to determine the winner of the World Cup.

Hours after the defeat, Ratier's contract expired and he will be meeting with Rugby Canada next week to discuss his future.

Should he carry on with the program, his three-year plan will be focused on identifying new talent and increasing the depth of his team.

As well, he wants to see a decrease in the costs that his players incur representing their country by playing the sport.

He also said there was an instance where a player had to resign from their job to participate in the World Cup.

As for the immediate future, the women's 15's will get a rest from playing action and have time to get back to training, their schooling and/or their jobs. Meanwhile, some of the players like Harvey and Russell will soon began preparation for the IRB Women's Sevens World Series which will be hosted by Dubai in early December.

The sevens format will be used in two years at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio De Janeiro - Harvey, a speedy wing, has targeted playing in the games as her "ultimate goal".

As for the whirlwind past few weeks that have unfolded for herself and her teammates?

"I had no idea this is would be the outcome for me," Harvey said. "I believed we could win, I did believe that we get to the final which we did and I'm glad it paid off - all the hard work we had done all year."

Follow Neil Acharya on Twitter: @Neil_Acharya