2025 Women's Rugby World Cup

2025 Women's Rugby World Cup

Tournament details
Host nation	England
Dates	22 August – 27 September 2025
No. of nations	16
← 2021 2029 →

The 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup will be the tenth edition of the women's Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national rugby union teams, organised by World Rugby. It is scheduled to take place in England between 22 August and 27 September 2025. The opening game will take place at the Stadium of Light with the final scheduled to be held at Twickenham Stadium.^[1][2]

It will be the second women's Rugby Union World Cup to be hosted by England, after the 2010 edition. It will be the fifth hosted in the British Isles.

The tournament will be expanded to 16 teams, from the 12 which participated in 2021.^[3]

New Zealand enter the tournament as defending champions following their victory against England in the 2021 Rugby World Cup Final.^[4]

On 13 August 2020 World Rugby announced that the hosting rights to the next two world cups, men's and women's, would be selected during the same process.^[5] These were the 2027 and 2031 men's tournaments and the 2025 and 2029 women's tournaments. The RFU confirmed their intent to bid for the 2025 tournament in October 2021.^[6]

World Rugby awarded England preferred candidate status for the 2025 tournament in November 2021.^[7] England were confirmed as hosts on 13 May 2022.^[8]

In August 2023, eight venues were confirmed for the 2025 Rugby World Cup.^[9][10]

London	Sunderland	Twickenham Stadium of Light Ashton Gate Brighton & Hove Albion Stadium Sandy Park Franklin's Gardens Salford Community Stadium York Community Stadium	Brighton and Hove	Bristol
Twickenham Stadium	Stadium of Light		Brighton and Hove Albion Stadium	Ashton Gate
Capacity: 82,000	Capacity: 49,000		Capacity: 31,876	Capacity: 27,000
Exeter	Northampton		Manchester	York
Sandy Park	Franklin's Gardens		Salford Community Stadium	York Community Stadium
Capacity: 15,600	Capacity: 15,249		Capacity: 12,000	Capacity: 8,500

In December 2023 it was announced that hosts England would open the tournament at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland, and that the final would be held at Twickenham in London.^[11]

In June 2024 World Rugby confirmed that the quarter-finals would be shared between Sandy Park and Ashton Gate, while Ashton Gate would host both semi-finals.^[12]

Sixteen teams will compete. Four teams automatically qualified by reaching the 2021 Rugby World Cup semi-finals; New Zealand, England, France & Canada. Six of the remaining twelve spots will be decided though the 2024 Six Nations, 2024 Pacific Four Series and regional competitions in Africa, Asia, Oceania, and South America, while the 2024 WXV will determine the final six places.^[13][14]

In Europe, Ireland reached their eighth World Cup after taking the region's qualifying place by defeating Scotland in the final round of the 2024 Women's Six Nations Championship.^[15] In Africa, South Africa qualified for their fifth world cup after beating Madagascar in the final round of the 2024 Rugby Africa Women's Cup.^[16] The United States made their tenth world cup after New Zealand defeated Australia in the final game of the 2024 Pacific Four Series.^[17] In Asia, Japan qualified for their seventh World Cup after beating Kazakhstan in the second game of the 2024 Asia Rugby Women's Championship.^[18] Fiji qualified as Oceania 1 after winning the 2024 Oceania Rugby Women's Championship.^[19][20] Brazil qualified for their debut World Cup after beating Colombia in the South American qualifying, becoming the first South American team to qualify for the Women's Rugby World Cup.^[21]

In WXV 2, Australia, Italy, Scotland and Wales qualified for the World Cup. Samoa and Spain qualified as the top two teams in WXV 3 who had not already qualified via regional competitions.

The six teams from the Women's Six Nations Championship, England, Scotland, Wales, France, Ireland, and Italy, will compete for the first time since the 2002 Women's Rugby World Cup.

Qualified teams

Region	Team	Qualification method	Previous apps	Previous best result	World Rugby Ranking[N 1]
Africa	South Africa	Africa 1	4	Tenth place (2010, 2014)
Asia	Japan	Asia 1	5	Eighth place (1994)
Europe	England	Hosts + Top 4 at 2021 RWC	9	Champions (1994, 2014)
	France	Top 4 at 2021 RWC	9	Third place (seven times)
	Ireland	Europe 1	7	Fourth place (2014)
	Italy	2024 WXV 2 (3rd)	5	Quarter final (2021)
	Scotland	2024 WXV 2 (2nd)	6	Fifth place (1994)
	Wales	2024 WXV 2 (5th)	8	Fourth place (1994)
	Spain	2024 WXV 3 (1st)	6	Sixth place (1991)
North America	Canada	Top 4 at 2021 RWC	9	Runners-up (2014)
	United States	P4 1	9	Champions (1991)
Oceania	Australia	2024 WXV 2 (1st)	7	Third place (2010)
	Fiji	Oceania 1	1	Pool stage (2021)
	New Zealand	Top 4 at 2021 RWC	8	Champions (six times)
	Samoa	2024 WXV 3 (2nd)	3	Ninth place (2002)
South America	Brazil	Americas 1	0	Debut

Notes:

The pool draw took place on 17 October 2024 in London; it was shown live on The One Show in the United Kingdom and on RugbyPassTV worldwide. Gabby Logan, Maggie Alphonsi, and Roman Kemp, a presenter from The One Show, hosted the draw.^[22][23]

A seeding system will be used for the draw with all 16 allocated a seed based on their World Rugby Women's World Rankings on 14 October 2024. The top four teams in the world Rankings will be placed into band 1 and prepopulated into the first position in each pool. The remaining 12 teams will be drawn into bands 2,3 and 4 based on their rankings and drawn one by one. The bands are:^[23]

• Band 1: Seeds 1 to 4
• Band 2: Seeds 5 to 8
• Band 3: Seeds 9 to 12
• Band 4: Seeds 13 to 16

This meant the 16 qualified teams, qualified were seeded thus (world ranking as of 14 October 2024):^[24]

Competing countries will be divided into four pools of four teams (pools A to D). Teams in each pool will play one another in a round-robin format, with the top two teams advancing to the knockout stage.

Pool A	Pool B	Pool C	Pool D
England  Australia  United States  Samoa	Canada  Scotland  Wales  Fiji	New Zealand  Ireland  Japan  Spain	France  Italy  South Africa  Brazil

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
1	England (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to knockout stage
2	Australia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	United States	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Samoa	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

22 August 2025	England	Match 1	United States	Stadium of Light, Sunderland
23 August 2025	Australia	Match 2	Samoa	Salford Community Stadium, Manchester
30 August 2025	England	Match 11	Samoa	Franklin's Gardens, Northampton
30 August 2025	United States	Match 12	Australia	York Community Stadium, York
6 September 2025	United States	Match 18	Samoa	York Community Stadium, York
6 September 2025	England	Match 20	Australia	Brighton & Hove Albion Stadium, Brighton

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
1	Canada	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to knockout stage
2	Scotland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Wales	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Fiji	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

23 August 2025	Scotland	Match 3	Wales	Salford Community Stadium, Manchester
23 August 2025	Canada	Match 4	Fiji	York Community Stadium, York
30 August 2025	Canada	Match 9	Wales	Salford Community Stadium, Manchester
30 August 2025	Scotland	Match 10	Fiji	Salford Community Stadium, Manchester
6 September 2025	Canada	Match 17	Scotland	Sandy Park, Exeter
6 September 2025	Wales	Match 19	Fiji	Sandy Park, Exeter

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
1	New Zealand	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to knockout stage
2	Ireland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Japan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Spain	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

24 August 2025	Ireland	Match 6	Japan	Franklin's Gardens, Northampton
24 August 2025	New Zealand	Match 8	Spain	York Community Stadium, York
31 August 2025	Ireland	Match 13	Spain	Franklin's Gardens, Northampton
31 August 2025	New Zealand	Match 14	Japan	Sandy Park, Exeter
7 September 2025	Japan	Match 21	Spain	York Community Stadium, York
7 September 2025	New Zealand	Match 23	Ireland	Brighton & Hove Albion Stadium, Brighton

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
1	France	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Advance to knockout stage
2	Italy	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	South Africa	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Brazil	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

23 August 2025	France	Match 5	Italy	Sandy Park, Exeter
24 August 2025	South Africa	Match 7	Brazil	Franklin's Gardens, Northampton
31 August 2025	Italy	Match 15	South Africa	York Community Stadium, York
31 August 2025	France	Match 16	Brazil	Sandy Park, Exeter
7 September 2025	Italy	Match 22	Brazil	Franklin's Gardens, Northampton
7 September 2025	France	Match 24	South Africa	Franklin's Gardens, Northampton

The knockout stage will consist of three single-elimination rounds culminating in a final and a third-place playoff. In the case of a tie in regulation time, two 10-minute periods of extra time will be played to determine a winner. If the scores are tied at the end of extra time, an additional 10-minute "sudden death" period would be played, with the first team to score any points being the winner. If the score still remains tied, a kicking competition will ensue.

Quarter-finals will be split between Exeter's Sandy Park, and Bristol's Ashton Gate, while the latter will host both Semi-Finals. It was decided to have a double-header Bronze Final and World Cup Final at Twickenham for the final day as was the case in the previous World Cup.

Territory	Rights holder	Ref.
United Kingdom	BBC[n 1]	[25][26]

Notes: