2025 Rugby World Cup
Tournament details
Host nation England
Dates22 August – 27 September 2025
No. of nations16
← 2021
2029 →

The 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup will be the tenth edition of the women's Rugby World Cup, as organised by World Rugby. It is scheduled to be held in England.[1]

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.[2]

New Zealand enter the tournament as defending champions following their victory against England in the 2021 Rugby World Cup Final.[3]

The opening match will take place in Sunderland at the Stadium of Light, while the final will be held at Twickenham Stadium.[4][5][6]

Host selection

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.[7] 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.[8]

World Rugby awarded England preferred candidate status for the 2025 tournament in November 2021.[9] England were confirmed as hosts on 13 May 2022.[10]

Venues

In August 2023, eight venues were confirmed for the 2025 Rugby World Cup.[11][12]

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

Qualifying

Main article: 2025 Rugby World Cup qualifying

The qualification pathway for the competition was confirmed in January 2021.[13]

Tournament hosts England qualify automatically. They will be joined by the teams that reached the semi-final stage of the 2021 Rugby World Cup, who also qualified automatically.

Five places will be decided via regional qualifying competitions: one each for Africa, Oceania, Asia, South America and Europe. One place will also be decided by the results of the Pacific Fours cross-regional competition.

The six remaining teams will be decided by the WXV 2024 competition. These places will be awarded to the highest-ranked teams which have not yet qualified by any other method.

Qualified teams
Region Team Qualification
method 		Previous
apps 		Previous best result World Rugby
Ranking1
Africa
Asia
Europe  England Hosts + 2021 runners-up 9 Champions (1994 ,2014)
 France 2021 semi-finalists 9 Third place (seven times)
North America  Canada 2021 semi-finalists 9 Runners-up (2014)
Oceania  New Zealand 2021 champions 8 Champions (six times)
South America

Notes

References

  1. ^ "England to host women's Rugby World Cup in 2025". South Wales Guardian. May 12, 2022. Archived from the original on September 14, 2023. Retrieved May 12, 2022.
  2. ^ world.rugby. "Rugby World Cup 2025 set to break new ground as tournament expands to 16 teams ｜ Rugby World Cup 2021". www.rugbyworldcup.com. Archived from the original on 2022-10-06. Retrieved 2022-10-06.
  3. ^ rugbybworldcup.com. "As it happened: New Zealand v England - Final | Rugby World Cup 2021". www.rugbyworldcup.com. Archived from the original on 2022-11-12. Retrieved 2022-11-17.
  4. ^ "Women's Rugby World Cup England 2025 confirms opening and closing venues". Sunderland City Council. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  5. ^ "Rugby World Cup 2025: England to kick off tournament at Sunderland's Stadium of Light". Sky Sports. 11 December 2023. Archived from the original on 21 December 2023. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  6. ^ "Sunderland to host Women's Rugby World Cup opener". BBC Sport. 11 December 2023. Archived from the original on 17 December 2023. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  7. ^ worldrugby.org. "World Rugby announces joint men's and women's Rugby World Cup host selection process | World Rugby". www.world.rugby. Archived from the original on 2022-10-06. Retrieved 2022-10-06.
  8. ^ "RFU hopes to bid for women's 2025 World Cup". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on 2023-09-14. Retrieved 2022-10-06.
  9. ^ worldrugby.org. "World Rugby adopts partnership approach to Rugby World Cup host selection and confirms exclusive Preferred Candidate and Targeted Dialogue unions | World Rugby". www.world.rugby. Archived from the original on 2022-10-06. Retrieved 2022-10-06.
  10. ^ "England to host 2025 women's World Cup". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on 2022-10-06. Retrieved 2022-10-06.
  11. ^ "Rugby World Cup 2025: Eight host venues named for tournament in England". BBC Sport. 21 August 2023. Archived from the original on 22 August 2023. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
  12. ^ "World Rugby and RFU confirm host cities and venues with two years to go until Rugby World Cup 2025". World Rugby. 21 August 2023. Archived from the original on 22 August 2023. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
  13. ^ world.rugby. "New qualification pathway confirmed for Rugby World Cup 2025 | Rugby World Cup". www.rugbyworldcup.com. Archived from the original on 2022-10-06. Retrieved 2022-10-06.
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