Women's international rugby union

Women's international rugby union has a history going back to the late 19th century, but it was not until 1982 that the first international fixture (or "test match") involving women's rugby union took place. The match was organised in connection with the Dutch Rugby Union's 50th anniversary: as part of the celebrations, on June 13, 1982, the French national women's team played the Dutch in Utrecht, Netherlands, with France winning 4–0 ^[1] in a game that has since been recognised as the first ever women's international ^[2] rugby union match.

Official recognition of women's internationals was not immediate, as almost all women's rugby was originally organised outside of the control of either national unions or World Rugby (WR) for many years. Partly as a result, no internationally agreed list of rugby internationals exists; even in the men's game, WR does not decide which matches are "full internationals" (or "test matches"), leaving such decisions up to participating unions.

As a result, one country may classify a match as a full international (and award full test caps) while the opposition may not: countries may even award caps for games against an opposition that is not a national team (World XVs, for example). ^[3]

International rugby initially grew slowly. ^[4] Sweden joined France and the Netherlands in 1984, followed by Italy in 1985. It was not until 1987 with a U.S. v. Canada matchup that the first international took place outside Europe, and not until 1990, with New Zealand hosting a match, that the first match was played by a Southern Hemisphere team or played in the Southern Hemisphere. However, since 2003 the game has expanded rapidly, and now over 50 nations have played at least one "test match".

Over 1,000 internationals have now been played. Traditional centres of rugby in New Zealand, England, and France have been the most successful nations, but they have been joined by a number of "non-traditional" nations who have also been successful, such as the United States and Canada.

Rankings

Unlike men's rugby, there was historically no official ranking of women's teams — prior to 2016, WR generally referred to the placings in the preceding World Cup. However, Rugby Europe compiles an annual ranking of European teams and rugby statistician Serge Piquet has produced a currently unofficial, but generally accepted, world ranking list. ^[5] Another list appears on The Roon Ba website. ^[6]

On 1 February 2016, WR introduced its first official rankings of women's national teams, calculated in virtually the same manner as the existing rankings for men's national teams. ^[7]

International women's matches

Definition of an "international":

Individual unions compile their own international records. As a result, the list below will conflict with some of these "official" records (much in the same way as they will conflict with each other) as unions:

• may not include some games in their official records because they fielded a below strength team in a tournament for full international XVs, or
• may include games which are not listed below because they fielded a full strength team in a friendly against an unofficial or "A" team.

For consistency this list has used the following criteria when defining what is or is not an international:

• Tournament games between national representative XVs from tournaments for full international teams, regardless of an individual union's selection policy;
• "Friendly" fixtures which it appears were generally promoted prior to the game as being between full strength national XVs. In case of doubt the opinion of the home union – i.e. the promoter of the game – has carried the most weight.
• Fixtures between official national selections and supra-national teams (such as "World XVs").

World Rugby Rankings (women)

Women's World Rugby Rankings v t e
Top 20 rankings as of 29 May 2023 [8]
Rank	Change*	Team	Points
1		England	094.55
2		New Zealand	093.19
3		France	089.62
4		Canada	084.67
5		Australia	078.00
6		Wales	077.00
7		United States	076.80
8		Italy	074.63
9		Scotland	071.19
10		Ireland	071.09
11		Japan	068.40
12		Spain	066.35
13		South Africa	066.15
14		Russia	061.10
15		Netherlands	060.02
16	1	Fiji	058.33
17	1	Hong Kong	058.31
18		Samoa	058.01
19		Kazakhstan	057.54
20		Sweden	056.01
*Change from the previous week

The World Rugby Rankings for women is a ranking system for women's national teams in rugby union, managed by World Rugby, the sport's governing body. The teams of World Rugby's member nations are ranked based on their game results, with the most successful teams being ranked highest. A point system is used, with points being awarded based on the results of World Rugby-recognized international matches. The women's rankings are calculated in the same manner as WR's existing men's rankings, with minor adjustments to reflect historic differences between women's and men's rugby.

Women's Test Ranking (unofficial)

Before early 2016, there was no official World Rugby ranking list for women's rugby. Several unofficial lists have been produced, with the list developed by Serge Piquet in 2009 having widest circulation following its adoption by women's rugby website ScrumQueens.com in 2013.

The system is similar in many ways to that used by WR for its men's rankings, and includes data from every women's international match since 1982.

Match points are awarded to each country as follows:

1. Match level – generally the mean of combined points the two teams before the match, with a minima.

2. The result – 400 points for a win, 200 for a draw, 100 for a defeat or 0 for a forfeit in an official competition.

3. Match venue – 100 points is shared between the two teams. A team playing at home against an opponent from another continent gets 0 point, but 100 is awarded to their opponents. 25 points goes to the home team if the opponent is from the same continent, and 75 for their opponents. 50 goes to each team if they are playing on neutral ground.

4. Number of scored points and the points difference.

5. World Cup – a bonus of 50 points for games in qualifying rounds, 100 in pool phases of the finals, 150 for playoffs and 200 for the final.

Matches against A, B, Emerging, Amateur, Junior, Student, Army, Police or Services teams (and provinces/clubs when these games are part of official competitions) are also taken into account.

Nomads, Caribbean Select XV and Great Britain awarded ranking points but not a ranking position.

After each match a team's new ranking points total will be equal to the sum of 10% of their match points, and 90% of the ranking number before the match. This method evens out occasional surprise results and ensures that the ranking rewards consistency of performance.

Finally, in order that current form is given priority over historic performances, points gained from past matches decrease by 2% per year.

Differences between men's and women's rankings

Although the ranking is similar in principle to that produced by WR for men's rugby since 2003 and women's rugby since 2016, there are some differences that take into account differences in women's rugby.

The WR system, for both men and women, does not account for the level of the teams — the winner gains some points, and the loser loses them, regardless of the relative levels of the opponents. This means that a lower-tier team will lose ranking points with a loss to a higher-tier team, even if the result is much closer than expected. Given the sometimes wide variation in strength of teams — even in the same competition — this is too simplistic for women's rugby.

The WR ranking also does not account for matches against "special" teams, especially those that are not WR members — but for many of the smaller women's nations, games against teams such as England "A" are more significant, tougher, and often as good a guide to their strength, if not better, than those against some full-strength test teams. As a result, such games are included in this ranking.

Finally, a new team added to WR's rankings is arbitrarily awarded a fixed number of points (currently 30 in the men's game, and 40 in the women's game). before December 2012, a men's team had to play at least 10 matches to be classified. Given the number of tests women's teams play this would be a significant barrier to inclusion.

An alternative ranking is available at the site 22metri and is based on the WR calculation method applied to the games played from January 2010 with teams assigned an arbitrary starting points of 40, 30 and 20 based on tier. ^[9] The ranking is similar to the one from Scrumqueens, as expected.

Highest team scores

up to and including 24 November 2018

152	Fiji v Papua New Guinea (152–0) at Papakura 09/07/2022 Friendly
141	Netherlands v Denmark (141–3) at Toulouse 02/05/2004 FIRA [445]
134	New Zealand v Germany (134–6) at Amsterdam 02/05/1998 World Cup [192]
121	United States v Japan (121–0) at Melrose 15/04/1994 World Cup [086]
	New Zealand v Hong Kong (121–0) at Billings Park UCD, Dublin 13/08/2017 World Cup [1211]
119	Spain v Finland (119–0) at University of A Coruña 30/04/2011 FIRA [885]
117	New Zealand v Germany (117–0) at Barcelona 13/05/2002 World Cup [360]
113	Netherlands v Denmark (113–0) at Amsterdam 08/05/2003 FIRA [413]
111	United States v Sweden (111–0) at Melrose 11/04/1994 World Cup [080]
109	New Zealand v France (109–0) at Edmonton 14/09/1996 Canada Cup [143]   France A v Finland (109–3) at INEF Bastiaqueiro 04/05/2011 FIRA [---]
105	Netherlands v Belgium (105–0) at Amsterdam 08/04/2001 Friendly [308]   Netherlands v Finland (105–0) at Enköping 03/05/2012 FIRA [937]
101	England v South Africa (101–0) at Imber Court 14/05/2005 Friendly [495]
100	Netherlands v Belgium (100–0) at Enköping, Sweden 17/05/2009 FIRA [737]

Note: An unofficial international between a Uganda XV and a Rwanda XV at Kampala on 4 December 2004 resulted in a 183–0 win to the Uganda XV.

Sources of women's international results

The above results have been traced mainly via the following listings of national and tournament results – most being national RFUs. Other results have been traced via numerous news reports.

• Australia at the Wayback Machine (archived 30 September 2007) Complete for 1994–2006, some errors in dates.
• England (1998–)
• FIRA European Championships (2003–)
• France (1982–2004)
• France (1990–)
• Germany (rather incomplete)
• International Rugby Board (2006–, Six Nations and World Cup only)
• Japan (1994–2002)
• Netherlands (2003–)
• Norway (2002–)
• New Zealand (1991–)
• RBS Six Nations (2004–)
• Sweden (1984–2005)
• USA (complete, some errors)
• Wales (1987–, some gaps, some errors)

Women's rugby participation rates

Ratio of registered female rugby players to the total female population.

Rank Country Ratio 1   Tonga 1: 8 2   Cook Islands 1: 17 3   Saint Vincent & the Grenadines 1: 74 4   Swaziland 1: 123 5   Solomon Islands 1: 125 6   New Zealand 1: 131 7   Ireland 1: 155 8   Bermuda 1: 172 9   Guam 1: 191 10   Tahiti 1: 225 11   Botswana 1: 234 12   Samoa 1: 262 13   Namibia 1: 311 14   Malta 1: 362 15   Australia 1: 449 16   Wales 1: 464 17   Papua New Guinea 1: 474 18   British Virgin Islands 1: 528 19   Cayman Islands 1: 529 20   Vanuatu 1: 622 21   South Africa 1: 693 22   Scotland 1: 723 23   Hong Kong 1: 870 24   Andorra 1: 897 25   Barbados 1: 1,018 26   Fiji 1: 1,100 27   Tunisia 1: 1,204 28   England 1: 1,235 29   Senegal 1: 1,535 30   Moldova 1: 2,049 31   American Samoa 1: 2,379 32   France 1: 2,413 33   Rwanda 1: 2,512 34   Uganda 1: 2,552

Rank Country Ratio 35   Trinidad and Tobago 1: 2,812 36   Singapore 1: 2,883 37   Canada 1: 2,921 38   United States 1: 2,951 39   Guyana 1: 3,247 40   Sri Lanka 1: 3,642 41   Luxembourg 1: 3,742 42   Jamaica 1: 4,255 43   Italy 1: 4,411 44   Zambia 1: 4,605 45   Belgium 1: 4,671 46   Bahamas 1: 4,838 47   Madagascar 1: 5,157 48   Netherlands 1: 5,331 49   Peru 1: 5,623 50   Denmark 1: 5,719 51   Uruguay 1: 5,859 52   Mauritius 1: 6,014 53   Bulgaria 1: 6,624 54   Thailand 1: 6,800 55   Zimbabwe 1: 7,065 56   Latvia 1: 7,624 57   Spain 1: 8,054 58   Kazakhstan 1: 9,323 59   Georgia 1: 9,370 60   Norway 1: 9,838 61   Sweden 1: 9,867 62   Romania 1: 9,930 63   Argentina 1: 10,190 64   Kenya 1: 10,335 65   Lithuania 1: 10,583 66   Czech Republic 1: 11,017 67   Portugal 1: 11,156 68   Switzerland 1: 12,243

Rank Country Ratio 69   Philippines 1: 14,092 70   Finland 1: 15,256 71   Chile 1: 15,901 72   Serbia 1: 16,023 73   United Arab Emirates 1: 16,319 74   Morocco 1: 17,867 75   Japan 1: 18,822 76   Croatia 1: 19,205 77   Cameroon 1: 19,936 78   Israel 1: 23,579 79   Bosnia and Herzegovina 1: 24,307 80   Germany 1: 24,913 81   Ukraine 1: 26,802 82   Hungary 1: 28,893 83   Slovenia 1: 30,451 84   Paraguay 1: 31,736 85   Austria 1: 32,949 86   Poland 1: 33,761 87   Russia 1: 39,308 88   Malaysia 1: 44,189 89   Colombia 1: 48,638 90   Greece 1: 52,138 91   Chinese Taipei 1: 57,045 92   Venezuela 1: 62,814 93   Brazil 1: 68,634 94   Mexico 1: 71,685 95   Ivory Coast 1: 80,972 96   China 1: 98,328 97   Pakistan 1: 129,870 98   Uzbekistan 1: 139,665 99   India 1: 144,300 100   Nigeria 1: 267,380 101   South Korea 1: 862,069 102   Indonesia 1: 1,298,701

Source: ScrumQueens

See also

• Sports portal

• Canada Cup
• Caribbean Women's Rugby Championship
• FIRA Women's European Championship
• Scottish Women's Rugby Union
• Women's international rugby union results summary
• Pacific Tri-Nations
• Women's rugby
• Women's Rugby World Cup
• Women's Six Nations Championship
• Women's International Rugby Union Sevens
• Women's international rugby union results summary
• List of women's international rugby union test matches
• Women's international rugby union (non test matches)
• Rugby Africa Women's Cup

Notes

1. A try was only worth four points in 1982, the five point try not being introduced until 1992.
2. "'Definition of an "international" used in this article.'" This article, with its accompanying match list and associated data as well as the statistical summary of each team's relative success – only includes matches that most independent observers appear to treat as "full internationals" (or "test matches"). These may be defined as:
   • Tournament games between national representative XVs from tournaments for full international teams;
   • "Friendly" fixtures which it appears were generally promoted prior to the game as being between full strength national XVs
   • Other fixtures which most independent authorities (as opposed to individual unions) appear to treat as full internationals (such as games involving "World XVs").
   As a result, the list may conflict with the official records published by some national unions who may not include all of these games in their official records (most often because the Union concerned fielded a below strength team in a tournament for full international XVs), or may include games which fail to meet the above definitions (most often because they fielded a full strength team in a friendly against an unofficial or "A" team).
3. "Statistics: Scoring & Player Numbers Explanation". Scrum.com. Retrieved 17 May 2010.
4. Internationals in each calendar year:
   • 1982 1
   • 1983 1
   • 1984 2
   • 1985 3
   • 1986 5
   • 1987 6
   • 1988 11
   • 1989 5
   • 1990 11
   • 1991 17 (World Cup year)
   • 1992 5
   • 1993 12
   • 1994 34 (World Cup year)
   • 1995 12
   • 1996 23
   • 1997 32
   • 1998 52 (World Cup year)
   • 1999 28
   • 2000 37
   • 2001 46
   • 2002 53 (World Cup year)
   • 2003 32
   • 2004 47
   • 2005 44
   • 2006 79 (World Cup year)
   • 2007 58
   • 2008 66
   • 2009 54
5. "Rugby a Xv Féminin".
6. "The Roon Ba".
7. "Official rankings introduced for women's 15s game" (Press release). World Rugby. 1 February 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
8. "Women's World Rankings". World Rugby. Retrieved 29 May 2023.
9. Women Rugby Ranking - a proposal

External links

• Media related to Women's rugby union at Wikimedia Commons
• Rugbydata includes women's internationals (18 March 2010 to 16 March 2014)
• Entire list of internationals (13 June 1982 to 28 April 2012) in a Google Documents spreadsheet.
• The rise and popularity of women's rugby in Canada, by John A O'Hanley (1998)
• Official women's World Rankings