Taking place up and down England, the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 will be the biggest and most accessible celebration of women’s rugby ever.
Sunderland’s Stadium of Light will host the opening game on August 22, while Twickenham will stage the final on September 27.
The 10th edition of the tournament will feature the world’s 16 best teams – an increase from the 12 nations that took part in the last World Cup in New Zealand.
The 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup is already being billed as a ‘generational moment’ for the sport and there are hopes the tournament can spark similar levels of interest to the Lionesses’ transformational 2022 Euros win.
England qualify as hosts; Canada, France and New Zealand, by reaching the semi-finals of the World Cup in 2022; South Africa, by winning the Rugby Africa Women’s Cup; Ireland, after finishing third in the 2024 Women’s Six Nations; USA, by beating Australia in the Pacific Four series; Fiji, who won the Oceania Rugby Women’s Championship; Japan who finished top of the Asia Rugby Women’s Championship; and Brazil who beat Colombia to win the Sudamerica play-off.
The final six teams were determined at the 2024 edition of WXV, the three-tier global competition. Australia won WXV2 to book their place while Scotland, Italy and Wales also qualified via that tournament. Spain and Samoa ensured they will take part in next year’s World Cup by finishing first and second respectively in WXV3. Spain last competed in the World Cup in 2017 while Samoa have not taken part since 2014.
The draw for the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup will take place on Thursday, October 17. It will be broadcast live on The One Show, on BBC One from 7pm.
The schedule of matches will be released on October 22.
The tournament consists of a group stage, with four groups of four. The top two teams from each group progress to the knockouts: quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.
The top four ranked teams at the time of the draw will be split across the four groups. The draw will the allot the teams ranked 5-8, then those ranked 9-12, then those ranked 13-16.
Eight cities across England will stage the tournament. In a measure of the Rugby Football Union’s ambition to spread the game around the country, York, Manchester, Bristol, Exeter and Northampton will all host matches.
Four of the venues are already home to English rugby teams, including Bristol Bears at Ashton Gate, Northampton Saints’ Franklin’s Gardens, Exeter Chiefs’ Sandy Park and Sale Sharks at the Salford Community Stadium (commonly known as AJ Bell Stadium).
After opening their World Cup campaign in Sunderland, the Red Roses will play their remaining two pool matches Northampton and Brighton.
Ashton Gate will share the quarter-finals with Exeter’s Sandy Park, which hosted the Premiership Women’s Rugby final last week.
Having beaten France 38-19 at Kingsholm and New Zealand 24-12 at Twickenham, England headed to Canada for the WXV1 tournament. They beat the United States, hammered New Zealand and then fought back to beat Canada in their final match to win the tournament again.
They will next play at home during the 2025 Women’s Six Nations, which includes a match against France at Twickenham at the end of April.
More than 400,000 tickets will available for the tournament. Ticket prices will range from from £5 to £95, with more than 60 per cent of tickets under £25. By the end of the presale window on October 8, more than 60,000 tickets had already been sold for England’s opening match and the final, via the Women’s Rugby World cup 2025 website.
The next opportunity to buy tickets is reserved for people with a Mastercard debit or credit card; they get a 48-hour priority sale window from 11am on October 22 to 11am on October 24. General sale reopens on November 5 and closes on November 19.
Child tickets for England’s tournament opener were available for as little as £5, while a family of four could pay £30.
Top tickets for the final at Twickenham, which the Rugby Football Union is hoping to sell out, are priced at £95, with lower-priced options available for adults starting at £30.
BBC Sport will broadcast exclusive coverage of the tournament across linear channels, with every match also available to watch live on BBC iPlayer and the Sport website and app.
Live audio commentary will be broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live and 5 Sports Extra.
Fans will be able to listen to 5 Live coverage on BBC Sounds, DAB radio and the BBC Sport website.
The exclusive coverage deal means there will also be content across BBC Scotland, BBC Wales and BBC Northern Ireland.
2022 – New Zealand (moved from 2021 amid the Covid pandemic)
2017 – New Zealand
2014 – England
2010 – New Zealand
2006 – New Zealand
2002 – New Zealand
1998 – New Zealand
1994 – England
1991 – USA
