The Scotland prop thought her international career was over when she was left out of the Rugby World Cup squad — then injuries, resilience, and a phone call changed everything.
Staff Reporter
In the end, Christine Belisle got to write her own ending. That was far from guaranteed. The 32-year-old Canadian-born prop had already quietly accepted that her Scotland career — 41 caps, six years, one try, and countless memories — was finished before she had a chance to say goodbye. Then a phone rang, and everything changed.
When Scotland’s squad for the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup was announced without her name in it, Belisle did what she has always done: she found a way to move forward. She congratulated the players selected, told her followers on Instagram that she was proud to have worn the thistle, and prepared herself for life after international rugby. It was dignified, it was gracious — and it was heartbreaking.
“I had kind of come to terms with the fact that I wasn’t going to be a part of it, and that was probably the end of my career with Scotland,” she said. “Obviously, that’s heartbreaking, but I knew I’d always support the girls. I found it really difficult to watch — I wanted to be supportive, but it was heartbreaking.”
The Call That Changed Everything
Sport, of course, is rarely tidy. One by one, injuries thinned out Scotland’s front row, and the coaching staff placed a call to the player they had initially left behind. Belisle, wary of false hope, had deliberately kept her distance.
“Knowing that different girls kept getting injured, I just wanted to stay out of it because I didn’t want to come to any conclusion that I might get called in. You don’t want to get your hopes up. I had done that once before, and it always breaks you again.”
But when the call came — from the team manager, asking if she would join the squad — the response was instinctive. Not resentment, not relief, just excitement. She did not know whether she would play. She did not care. She simply wanted to be there.
“I didn’t want to come in with a chip on my shoulder. I just wanted to help them and support them in whatever way that looked. I had no idea whether I’d be playing — I didn’t know if I was just going to be in there to hold a bag or whatever. But I knew that it was an opportunity to go and be with my friends.”
She not only joined the group — she started. Belisle took to the field at tighthead prop as Scotland faced their first World Cup quarter-final since 2002, a moment of national significance made all the more personal given how close she had come to missing it entirely.
A Career Built on Character, Not Just Talent
Belisle made her Scotland debut in September 2019 against South Africa, initially as a second row before transitioning into the front row the following year. Over the six seasons that followed, she became one of the squad’s most consistent and best-loved figures — not just at international level, but also at Loughborough Lightning, where her attitude and work ethic earned widespread respect.
She is refreshingly clear-eyed about the basis of her selection early in her career. “The first time I was ever capped and brought on tour was not because I was the most talented player in the world at all. It was because I was willing to work hard, and I was really good energy. I knew the privilege that it was to be in that environment.”
That same philosophy guided her return. She arrived at the World Cup squad not to prove a point, but to contribute — and, ultimately, to close a chapter with the peace of mind that often eludes retiring athletes.
“I was very conscious going back in that I would probably have the opportunity to actually close the door on my own terms. I made sure that every minute that I had in that environment with all my friends — everybody who had been so important to me during my career — that I would walk away and feel at peace with.”
The Harder Chapter: Saying Goodbye Before You Are Ready
Not every athlete is afforded the luxury of a second chance. When Belisle first posted her farewell message to social media — before the call came — she was confronting the far more common reality: an ending imposed rather than chosen.
“This isn’t how I imagined my international journey would end,” she wrote at the time. “My heart is heavy that it’s over — but I hold my head high, and will always be proud of what I leave behind.”
She had also navigated a difficult personal period earlier in 2025, stepping away from Scotland’s Six Nations campaign before vowing to return ‘better and brighter’. That she ultimately did — and on such a significant occasion — speaks to the resilience that has defined her throughout.
“I’ve come to accept that this is a situation I have no control over,” she had written after the initial omission. “So instead, I have been — and will continue to — pour my energy into the things I can control, and into the things that make me truly happy, even when it feels easier to remain stagnant and heartbroken.”
Life After the Whistle: Strong Friends Club
With her international career now definitively behind her, Belisle is channelling the energy and values rugby gave her into a new venture: her personal training business, Strong Friends Club.
The concept is deliberately positioned against prevailing gym culture. Where so much fitness content is built around weight loss and dramatic transformations, Strong Friends Club is built around gaining strength — and the self-worth that comes with it.
“Rugby has been so integral to helping me become who I am — both in recognising that strength is important, and empowering that hard work has built my character,” she said. “To be able to bring all of the good vibes and energy and friendships and community that I get within rugby squads — I wanted to provide that to people who maybe don’t play rugby but need that, or want that, to feel like they can make progress wherever they are in the world.”
“The whole premise is about shifting the narrative — moving away from having to shrink to have value, or getting skinny to have value. The internet, and some of the gyms I’ve worked in, are saturated with bodybuilding content or before-and-after photos. For the average person who just wants to feel better, only seeing content that promotes drastic transformations — without supporting mindset, nutrition, education, or lifestyle — is a one-way track to a continuing negative cycle.”
An Honour Worn With Pride
Forty-one caps. One try. A quarter-final start she had no right to expect. When Christine Belisle reflects on her Scotland career now, the verdict is uncomplicated.
“It’s truly been the honour of my life to play for Scotland,” she said. “I’m so proud to have been part of such an incredible group of women, and so lucky to have had the opportunity and privilege to wear the thistle.”
The door, she says, is closed — but on her own terms. That, in the end, is more than most get.