The 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup kicks off next year, on 22 August, and will be played across eight venues – London, Brighton, Bristol, Exeter, Manchester, Northampton, Sunderland, and York.
The Allianz stadium, formerly Twickenham, will stage the final, seeking to break the current world record attendance of 58,498 for a women’s test match set in 2023 during the Six Nations clash between England and France.
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With matches being played across the country, this will ensure that the 2025 edition of the tournament is the most accessible Women’s Rugby World Cup ever. 95% of England’s population will be within two hours of a match venue.
Accessibility and opportunity are key for women’s rugby to grow. When the Women’s Rugby World Cup was last held in England, in 2010, it could not have the intended impact beyond the tournament.
Firstly, the women’s game didn’t have the necessary infrastructure to sustain its popularity after the event. For example, this included a lack of female-specific changing rooms in rugby clubs. The final saw a crowd of over 13,000 fans, which at the time was a success, but comparing that figure to now, it shows how far the women’s game has progressed.
2025 has the potential to be a huge year for women’s rugby, beyond just the World Cup. Two countries are likely to launch domestic leagues for women’s rugby union – currently, only England and New Zealand have professional women’s leagues.
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By GlobalDataThe Women’s Elite Rugby League is set to begin in the US in March 2025. South Africa are also expected to launch a professional league. This is a very important step towards the goal of making women’s rugby a fully professional game worldwide. These upcoming leagues represent key investments that are being placed to grow the game.
One of the fundamental factors that will be vital for the Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2025 to be a success is exposure. BBC Sport has secured the exclusive rights to broadcast every game of the tournament, with select matches also being shown on its linear channels, and every game available to watch live on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website.
Showing women’s sport on free-to-air TV is important – firstly as it promotes interest in the sport, but also increases visibility. Women’s sport is reaching more people, with viewership increasing year-on-year.
For example, research from the Women’s Sport Trust found that in 2023, the average viewing time for women’s sport increased to 10 hours and seven minutes per person, up from 8 hours and 44 minutes in 2022.
The women’s Six Nations in 2024, which was shown on the BBC, was the most viewed on record with 8.1 million tuning in for three minutes or more, 33% more than in 2023.
A paywall would’ve limited the tournament’s exposure hugely, and given the current climate of women’s sport, this was not an option. Next summer, the BBC’s main aim will be for the maximum number of people possible to have the opportunity to watch the tournament.
Sky had the live broadcasting rights to the 2010 Women’s Rugby World Cup in England. As a pay-TV broadcaster, this would have, even more so at the time given that women’s sport was not in the spotlight as much as it is now, limited the tournament exposure and viewership.
There have been early signs that that tournament has the potential to be a huge success. More than 100,000 tickets were applied for in the first week of the ticket application phase, on top of the 130,000 tickets already sold in the presale.
There has been huge demand for England pool matches and the showpiece final at Allianz Stadium, illustrating the huge appetite that is out there for women’s sport, particularly in the UK.
Women’s rugby has had major investment over recent years, particularly from campaigns, including ‘GameFace’ and ‘Impact ‘25’.
The ‘GameFace’ campaign, which sees Clinique team up with Women’s Rugby, aims to boost the impact and awareness of sports, specifically rugby, by awarding support packages to grassroots girls’ rugby clubs.
The campaign initially began in 2022 and saw four clubs receive up to £10,000 ($12,652) worth of support, including equipment, education, and travel funding.
Women’s sport has been in the limelight over recent years, with the England women’s rugby team claiming the Six Nations title, and the Lionesses winning the European Championships. Beauty brands, like Clinique, have taken notice of this success and have directed their attention to the role models that are shaping women’s sport for the future.
This year sees the second launch of the campaign, which is being fronted by four Premiership Women’s Rugby players – Sadia Kabeya, Abi Burton, Akina Gondwe, and Claudia MacDonald.
In addition to the increasing number of ambassadors for this year’s campaign, Clinique has also become an official partner of Premiership Women’s Rugby. There is great importance for different brands to invest in women’s sport alongside campaigns with powerful messaging.
With the Women’s Rugby World Cup less than a year away, this campaign aims to bring young girls into the sport from the grassroots level, for them to be inspired by the World Cup, and in turn increasing participation beyond the tournament.
‘Impact ‘25’ is the legacy programme which has been set in place for next year’s Women’s World Cup, with the Rugby Football Union’s (RFU) ambition to reach 100,000 female rugby players by 2027.
As of April this year, the campaign had already seen more than £12 million ($15.2 million) committed to the sport in England and the home unions by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport.
Funding began during the 2022-23 season, with over £3 million ($3.8 million) so far being invested in 655 clubs nationwide, and almost 350 clubs having received grants to start under-12s activity. According to the RFU, the program is set to provide substantial improvements in facilities and greater opportunities for females at all levels of the game.
The 2010 Women’s Rugby World Cup was not able to create the legacy it set out to leave, largely down to the lack of infrastructure and facilities that were in place at the time.
However, with the help of the campaigns, creating opportunities from the grassroots level and putting the infrastructure in place before the tournament, this is what women’s rugby needs to grow and expand.
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