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.[2][3] The event returned to its traditional 4-year cycle following the 2021 Women's Rugby World Cup (as Rugby World Cup) postponed until 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. England won the competition, beating Canada 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.[4]New Zealand entered the tournament as defending champions following their victory against England in the 2021 Rugby World Cup final.[5] They were eliminated in the semi-finals by Canada, who became the first team to beat them at a World Cup in 11 years.[6]
The tournament broke multiple records for women's rugby. A total of 444,465 tickets were sold across all 32 matches, three times the attendance of the previous Women's Rugby World Cup and the final at Twickenham Stadium drew an attendance of 81,885 spectators, a new world record for any women's rugby match.[7] The tournament generated 147 million global viewing hours, a 336% increase on the previous edition, and yielded an estimated economic impact of £294.7 million for its eight host cities across England.[8]
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.[9] 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.[10]
World Rugby awarded England preferred candidate status for the 2025 tournament in November 2021.[11] England were confirmed as hosts on 13 May 2022.[12]
Venues
In August 2023, eight venues were confirmed for the event.[13][14]
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.[15] 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.[16]
Mural commemorating the 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup in Northampton.
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 (England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales) competed for the first time since 2002.
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.[26][27]
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.[28][29]
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:[29]
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):[30]
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. Nine of the officials had served at the previous World Cup. English official Sara Cox served at her fifth World Cup, while Hollie Davidson was later appointed to referee the final, becoming the first referee to officiate two Women's Rugby World Cup finals.[31][32]
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.[33][34] This opening match saw the highest attendance of any in Women's Rugby World Cup history, with a crowd of 42,723.[35]
Pool stage
Competing countries were divided into four pools of four teams (pools A to D). Teams in each pool played one another in a round-robin format, with the top two teams advancing to the 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.
The tournament generated 147 million global viewing hours, a 336% increase on the previous Women's Rugby World Cup, making it the most-watched women's rugby tournament ever staged.[8] In the United Kingdom, the BBC held exclusive broadcast rights, covering every match on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app, with home nations fixtures and all knockout matches also shown on BBC One or BBC Two.[57]
The opening match between England and the United States drew a peak UK audience of 2.4 million on BBC One, with a further 600,000 watching on iPlayer, surpassing the total audience for the entire 2021 tournament in a single weekend.[58] The final between England and Canada achieved a record peak UK audience of 5.8 million viewers across BBC linear and streaming platforms, making it the most-watched women's rugby match and the most-watched rugby match of any kind in the United Kingdom in 2025.[59] Across the full tournament, BBC audiences watched 57 million hours of coverage, with 10.5 million digital streams on iPlayer and BBC Sport.[60]
In France, broadcaster TF1's coverage of the semi-final between France and England reached a peak of 4.4 million viewers.[60] Globally, 15 countries broadcast all 32 matches, with viewing hour increases of 470% in Europe, 403% Africa and the Middle East, and 217% in the Americas compared with the previous edition.[60]
The 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup broke multiple records, prompting World Rugby chief executive Alan Gilpin to describe it as the greatest Rugby World Cup of all time.[74]
Attendance
A total of 444,465 tickets were sold across 32 matches, 92% of all available tickets and more than three times sold at the previous Women's Rugby World Cup held in New Zealand.[7] Supporters travelled from 133 countries to attend matches and 53% of supporters were women.[74]
The opening match between England and the United States at the Stadium of Light drew 42,723 spectators, at that point a new record for a Women's Rugby World Cup match. The final at Twickenham attracted 81,885 fans, the largest crowd in the history of women's rugby and the second-highest attendance for any Rugby World Cup final across the men's and women's game, surpassed only by the 2003 Rugby World Cup final (82,957).[55][75][76] When England last hosted the Women's Rugby World Cup in 2010, the final at the Twickenham Stoop had drawn a crowd of only 13,253.[74]
Economic impact
World Rugby published the Women's Rugby World Cup 2025 Impact Report and the Impact Beyond 2025 Global Impact Report, which together documented the tournament's domestic and international legacy. The tournament generated an estimated £294.7 million in economic impact for its eight host cities. Direct expenditure totalled £176.3 million, including £41.4 million for the UK accommodation sector and £24 million for the hospitality sector.[7][60]
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England 
Canada 
New Zealand 
