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]
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]
Venues
In August 2023, eight venues were confirmed for the 2025 Rugby World Cup.[9][10]
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]
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 WXV, Australia, Italy, Scotland and Wales qualified for the World Cup as they will take part in WXV 2. They will be joined by the top two teams in WXV 3 who has not already qualified via regional competitions.