Women's Rugby World Cup to expand from 12 to 16 teams from 2025, World Rugby announces
The women’s Rugby World Cup will be expanded from 12 to 16 teams from the 2025 edition, World Rugby announced on Monday.
The Rugby World Cup board made the decision earlier this year and World Rugby chairman Sir Bill Beaumont said it was a “milestone moment” for the women’s game.
This is the latest in a raft of changes the global governing body have made to the women’s tournament. Last year, gender-neutral branding for Rugby World Cups was put in place, meaning that next year’s showpiece would be referred to as Rugby World Cup 2021, rather than the Women’s Rugby World Cup as had previously been the case.
The expansion of the tournament to 16 teams comes after the entire format was changed for the 2021 World Cup in New Zealand, with the introduction of quarter-finals. The competition used to go straight from the pool stages to semi-finals. It was also announced in 2018 that seeding matches for each of the 12 competing teams at the end of the tournament would be scrapped to create a more competitive and exciting tournament.
These changes are part of World Rugby’s eight-year strategy for the development of both the women’s game and women in rugby. The governing body has stated that 28 per cent of those playing rugby globally are women and girls.
“Women’s rugby is the single greatest opportunity to grow the sport globally,” said Beaumont.
“In 2017, we set out an ambitious eight-year plan to accelerate the development of women in rugby, with a core pillar focusing on high-performance competition and an ambition to improve and expand the number of teams competing in pinnacle events. We have seen in recent years that more teams are making a statement at international level and unions are continuing to develop their women’s high-performance programmes.
“This is a milestone moment for the women’s game, expansion of the Rugby World Cup opens additional aspirational and inspirational playing pathway opportunities for unions at the highest level of the game and creates added incentive for unions worldwide to continue to invest and grow in their women’s programmes.”
The host selection process for the 2025 edition begins in February 2021 and is set to conclude in May 2022 with a council vote.
The 2021 World Cup, the ninth edition since the inaugural tournament in 1991, will be held on New Zealand’s North Island between Auckland and Whangarei from September 18 until October 16. New Zealand’s Black Ferns are the defending champions after winning their fifth title, with England as the only other professional side – at the moment the tournament looks as if it could be a two-way shootout.
England will face familiar foes France as well as South Africa and Fiji in their pool, the draw for which was made two weeks ago.
Wales have qualified and will face New Zealand and Australia in the pool of death but Ireland and Scotland are yet to confirm their places at the tournament after the European qualifying tournament was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
