2025 Women's Rugby World Cup


The 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup was the tenth edition of the Women's Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national rugby union teams, organised by World Rugby. It was held in England between 22 August and 27 September 2025. The opening game took place at the Stadium of Light, with the final was held at Twickenham Stadium. The event returned to its traditional 4-year cycle following the 2021 Women's Rugby World Cup postponed until 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. won the competition, beating 33–13 in the final.
It was the second Women's Rugby World Cup to be hosted by England, after the 2010 edition, and the fourth to be hosted in Great Britain. The tournament was expanded to 16 teams, from the previous 12 which participated in the 1991 and 1994 tournaments, and from 2006 to 2021. New Zealand entered the tournament as defending champions following their victory against in the 2021 Rugby World Cup final. They were eliminated in the semi-finals by, who became the first team to beat them at a World Cup in 11 years.

Host selection

On 13 August 2020, World Rugby announced that the hosting rights to the next two men's and women's World Cups would be selected during the same process. 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.
World Rugby awarded England preferred candidate status for the 2025 tournament in November 2021. England were confirmed as hosts on 13 May 2022.

Venues

In August 2023, eight venues were confirmed for the event.
TwickenhamSunderlandBrighton and HoveBristol
Twickenham StadiumStadium of LightAshton Gate
Capacity: 82,000Capacity: 49,000Capacity: 31,876Capacity: 26,462
ExeterNorthamptonSalfordYork
Sandy ParkFranklin's Gardens
Salford Community Stadium
York Community Stadium
Capacity: 15,600Capacity: 15,249Capacity: 11,404Capacity: 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 Stadium in London. In June 2024, World Rugby confirmed that the quarter-finals would be shared between Sandy Park in Exeter and Ashton Gate in Bristol, while Ashton Gate would solely host the semi-finals.

Teams

Qualifying

Sixteen teams competed at the tournament. Four teams automatically qualified by reaching the 2021 Rugby World Cup semi-finals: New Zealand, England, France and Canada. Six of the remaining twelve spots were decided though the 2024 Six Nations, 2024 Pacific Four Series and regional competitions in Africa, Asia, Oceania, and South America, while the 2024 WXV determined the final six places.
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. 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. The United States made their tenth World Cup after New Zealand defeated Australia in the final game of the 2024 Pacific Four Series. In Asia, Japan qualified for their seventh World Cup after beating Kazakhstan in the second game of the 2024 Asia Rugby Women's Championship. Fiji qualified as Oceania 1 after winning the 2024 Oceania Rugby Women's Championship. 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.
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.
All six teams from the Women's Six Nations Championship competed for the first time since 2002.
RegionTeamQualification
method		Previous
Previous best resultWorld Rugby
Ranking
AfricaAfrica 14Tenth place 12
AsiaAsia 15Eighth place 11
EuropeHosts + Top 4 at 2021 RWC9Champions 1
EuropeTop 4 at 2021 RWC9Third place 4
EuropeEurope 17Fourth place 5
Europe2024 WXV 2 5Quarter final 7
Europe2024 WXV 2 6Fifth place 8
Europe2024 WXV 2 8Fourth place 9
Europe2024 WXV 3 6Sixth place 13
North AmericaTop 4 at 2021 RWC9Runners-up 2
North AmericaP4 19Champions 10
Oceania2024 WXV 2 7Third place 6
OceaniaOceania 11Pool stage 14
OceaniaTop 4 at 2021 RWC8Champions 3
Oceania2024 WXV 3 3Ninth place 15
South AmericaAmericas 10Debut25

'''Notes:'''

Squads

Each team can select 32 players for their squads. England head coach John Mitchell criticised this, saying that teams should be allowed to select an additional player, as is permitted for teams competing in the Men's Rugby World Cup.

Draw

The pool draw took place on 17 October 2024, 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.
A seeding system was used for the draw, with all 16 allocated a seed based on their world rankings as of 14 October 2024. The top four teams in the world rankings were placed into band 1 and pre-populated into the first position in each pool. The remaining 12 teams were drawn into bands 2, 3, and 4 based on their rankings and drawn one by one. The bands are:
  • 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 :

Match officials

On 15 May 2025, World Rugby announced the team of 22 officials from 12 unions for the World Cup, including an "all-female team of referees". From the panel, nine of the officials returned, having served at the previous World Cup, whilst English official Sara Cox served at her fifth World Cup.
Referees
Assistant referees
  • Maria Heitor
  • Jess Ling
  • Amelia Luciano
  • Precious Pazani
  • Amber Stamp-Dunstan
  • Holly Wood
Television Match Officials
A series of warm up matches were played in the run-up to the tournament.

Opening ceremony

Singer Anne-Marie headlined the opening ceremony at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland on 22 August 2025, before the opening match between England and the United States. This opening match saw the highest attendance of any in Women's Rugby World Cup history, with a crowd of 42,273.

Pool stage

Competing countries were divided into four pools of four teams. Teams in each pool played one another in a round-robin format, with the top two teams advancing to the [|knockout stage].
Pool APool BPool CPool D





Points allocation in pool stage
  • Four points are awarded for a win.
  • Two points are awarded for a draw.
  • A try bonus point is awarded to teams that score four or more tries in a match.
  • A losing bonus point is awarded to teams that lose a match by seven points or fewer.

    Pool A

Pool B

Pool C

Pool D

Knockout stage

The knockout stage consisted 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 would 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 would ensue.
Quarter-finals were split between Exeter's Sandy Park, and Bristol's Ashton Gate, while the latter hosted both semi-finals. The tournament concluded with a double-header of the Bronze Final and World Cup Final at Twickenham in London on 27 September 2025.