| Logo Upright: | 0.6 |
| Women: | yes |
| Datefrom: | 22 August |
| Dateto: | 27 September 2025 |
| Host: | England |
| Nations: | 16 |
| Prev: | 2021 |
| Next: | 2029 |
The 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup will be 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 scheduled to take place in England between 22 August and 27 September 2025. The opening game will take place at the Stadium of Light with the final scheduled to be held at Twickenham Stadium.[1] [2]
It will be the second women's Rugby Union World Cup to be hosted by England, after the 2010 edition. It will be the fifth hosted in the British Isles.
The tournament will be expanded to 16 teams, from the 12 which participated in 2021.[3]
New Zealand enter the tournament as defending champions following their victory against in the 2021 Rugby World Cup Final.[4]
On 13 August 2020 World Rugby announced that the hosting rights to the next two world cups, men's and women's, would be selected during the same process.[5] 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.[6]
World Rugby awarded England preferred candidate status for the 2025 tournament in November 2021.[7] England were confirmed as hosts on 13 May 2022.[8]
In August 2023, eight venues were confirmed for the 2025 Rugby World Cup.[9] [10]
| London | Sunderland | Brighton and Hove | Bristol | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Twickenham Stadium | Stadium of Light | Ashton Gate | ||
| Capacity: 82,000 | Capacity: 49,000 | Capacity: 31,876 | Capacity: 27,000 | |
| Exeter | Northampton | Manchester | York | |
| Sandy Park | Franklin's Gardens | York Community Stadium | ||
| Capacity: 15,600 | Capacity: 15,249 | Capacity: 12,000 | Capacity: 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 in London.[11]
In June 2024 World Rugby confirmed that the quarter-finals would be shared between Sandy Park and Ashton Gate, while Ashton Gate would host both semi-finals.[12]
See main article: 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup qualifying.
Sixteen teams will compete. Four teams automatically qualified by reaching the 2021 Rugby World Cup semi-finals; New Zealand, England, France & Canada. Six of the remaining twelve spots will be decided though the 2024 Six Nations, 2024 Pacific Four Series and regional competitions in Africa, Asia, Oceania, and South America, while the 2024 WXV will determine the final six places.[13] [14]
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.[15] 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.[16] The United States made their tenth world cup after New Zealand defeated Australia in the final game of the 2024 Pacific Four Series.[17] In Asia, Japan qualified for their seventh World Cup after beating Kazakhstan in the second game of the 2024 Asia Rugby Women's Championship.[18] Fiji qualified as Oceania 1 after winning the 2024 Oceania Rugby Women's Championship.[19] [20] 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.[21]
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.
The six teams from the Women's Six Nations Championship, England, Scotland, Wales, France, Ireland, and Italy, will compete for the first time since the 2002 Women's Rugby World Cup.
| Region | Team | Qualification method | Previous | Previous best result | World Rugby Ranking | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Africa | Africa 1 | 4 | data-sort-value="11" | Tenth place (2010, 2014) | |||
| Asia | Asia 1 | 5 | data-sort-value="10" | Eighth place (1994) | |||
| Europe | Hosts + Top 4 at 2021 RWC | 9 | data-sort-value="2" | Champions (1994, 2014) | |||
| Top 4 at 2021 RWC | 9 | data-sort-value="5" | Third place | ||||
| Europe 1 | 7 | data-sort-value="7" | Fourth place (2014) | ||||
| 2024 WXV 2 (3rd) | 5 | data-sort-value="10" | Quarter final (2021) | ||||
| 2024 WXV 2 (2nd) | 6 | data-sort-value="8" | Fifth place (1994) | ||||
| 2024 WXV 2 (5th) | 8 | data-sort-value="7" | Fourth place (1994) | ||||
| 2024 WXV 3 (1st) | 6 | data-sort-value="9" | Sixth place (1991) | ||||
| North America | Top 4 at 2021 RWC | 9 | data-sort-value="4" | Runners-up (2014) | |||
| P4 1 | 9 | data-sort-value="3" | Champions (1991) | ||||
| Oceania | 2024 WXV 2 (1st) | 7 | data-sort-value="6" | Third place (2010) | |||
| Oceania 1 | 1 | data-sort-value="12" | Pool stage (2021) | ||||
| Top 4 at 2021 RWC | 8 | data-sort-value="1" | Champions | ||||
| 2024 WXV 3 (2nd) | 3 | data-sort-value="10" | Ninth place (2002) | ||||
| South America | Americas 1 | 0 | data-sort-value="13" | Debut |
The pool draw took place on 17 October 2024 in London; it was 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.[22] [23]
A seeding system will be used for the draw with all 16 allocated a seed based on their World Rugby Women's World Rankings on 14 October 2024. The top four teams in the world Rankings will be placed into band 1 and prepopulated into the first position in each pool. The remaining 12 teams will be drawn into bands 2,3 and 4 based on their rankings and drawn one by one. The bands are:
This meant the 16 qualified teams, qualified were seeded thus (world ranking as of 14 October 2024):[24]
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.
| width=25% | Pool A | width=25% | Pool B | width=25% | Pool C | width=25% | Pool D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
See main article: article and 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup Pool A.
| width=15% | width=25% | width=10% | width=25% | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 August 2025 | vs | Stadium of Light, Sunderland | |||||
| 23 August 2025 | vs | Salford Community Stadium, Manchester | |||||
| 30 August 2025 | vs | Franklin's Gardens, Northampton | |||||
| 30 August 2025 | vs | York Community Stadium, York | |||||
| 6 September 2025 | vs | York Community Stadium, York | |||||
| 6 September 2025 | vs | Brighton & Hove Albion Stadium, Brighton |
See main article: article and 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup Pool B.
| width=15% | width=25% | width=10% | width=25% | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 August 2025 | vs | Salford Community Stadium, Manchester | |||||
| 23 August 2025 | vs | York Community Stadium, York | |||||
| 30 August 2025 | vs | Salford Community Stadium, Manchester | |||||
| 30 August 2025 | vs | Salford Community Stadium, Manchester | |||||
| 6 September 2025 | vs | Sandy Park, Exeter | |||||
| 6 September 2025 | vs | Sandy Park, Exeter |
See main article: article and 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup Pool C.
| width=15% | width=25% | width=10% | width=25% | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 August 2025 | vs | Franklin's Gardens, Northampton | |||||
| 24 August 2025 | vs | York Community Stadium, York | |||||
| 31 August 2025 | vs | Franklin's Gardens, Northampton | |||||
| 31 August 2025 | vs | Sandy Park, Exeter | |||||
| 7 September 2025 | vs | York Community Stadium, York | |||||
| 7 September 2025 | vs | Brighton & Hove Albion Stadium, Brighton |
See main article: article and 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup Pool D.
| width=15% | width=25% | width=10% | width=25% | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 August 2025 | vs | Sandy Park, Exeter | |||||
| 24 August 2025 | vs | Franklin's Gardens, Northampton | |||||
| 31 August 2025 | vs | York Community Stadium, York | |||||
| 31 August 2025 | vs | Sandy Park, Exeter | |||||
| 7 September 2025 | vs | Franklin's Gardens, Northampton | |||||
| 7 September 2025 | vs | Franklin's Gardens, Northampton |
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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