The 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup is 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 being held in England between 22 August and 27 September 2025. The opening game took place at the Stadium of Light, with the final scheduled to be held at Twickenham Stadium.[2][3] The event returns 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.
It is the second women's Rugby Union World Cup to be hosted by England, after the 2010 edition, and the fourth to be hosted in Great Britain. The tournament was expanded from 12 to 16 teams, from the previous 12 which participated in the 1991 and 1994 tournaments, and from 2006 to 2021.[4]New Zealand enter the tournament as defending champions following their victory against England in the 2021 Rugby World Cup Final.[5]
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.[6] 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.[7]
World Rugby awarded England preferred candidate status for the 2025 tournament in November 2021.[8] England were confirmed as hosts on 13 May 2022.[9]
Venues
In August 2023, eight venues were confirmed for the event.[10][11]
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.[12] In June 2024 World Rugby confirmed that the quarter-finals would be shared between Sandy Park and Ashton Gate, while Ashton Gate would solely host the semi-finals.[13]
Mural commemorating the 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup in Northampton.
Sixteen teams will compete. 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.[14][15]
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.
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.[23][24]
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.[25][26]
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:[26]
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):[27]
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 will be returning to the World Cup having served in the previous World Cup, whilst English official Sara Cox will be serving her fifth World Cup.[28]
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.[29][30] This opening match saw the highest attendance of any in Women's Rugby World Cup history, with a crowd of 42,273.[31]
Pool stage
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.
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.
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England 
Julia Schell (30)
