There is no denying that Women’s rugby is a sport on the rise. We are on the cusp of a ‘Golden Decade’ that will soon be kick-started by the first ever WXV global competition, as we build along the road to the 2025 Rugby World Cup in England.
Held across New Zealand, South Africa and Dubai, this annual three tier tournament is the embodiment of the growth of Women’s rugby, that continues on an upward trajectory ahead of the 2025 Rugby World Cup in England. Women’s rugby has had some recent record attendances, and continues to push on with newly professionalised nations.
World Rugby Chief of Women’s Rugby Sally Horrax recently gave an eagerly anticipated update, on the Governing Bodies’ plans for the next 10 years. Horrax referred to the roadmap as a ‘Golden Decade’ of rugby, that will get underway in two weeks time as WXV kicks off across the globe.
“We can see positive impact across the whole of women’s sport globally. So when we move to the golden decade that lies ahead of us, we know that growth will be catalysed by this decade of pinnacle events. And we can see enormous potential here. I’ve mentioned WXV before, we see that launch in a couple of weeks. And that’s a truly global tournament hosted in New Zealand, South Africa and Dubai for us across three tiers.
“And then we’ll go again next year, in 2024 (WXV). And we’ll build to that Rugby World Cup in 2025. It’s also just worth mentioning the Sevens game, because we oversee the development of the fifteens and the sevens game. And here in Paris next year, we have the Olympics. We’re also relaunching a sevens series for women later this year, and for men, 12 men’s teams, 12 women’s teams. So that relaunch of the global series gives much more choice for unions all over the world, and girls and women to choose how they’d like to participate.
“But what you can see here is a roadmap that takes us, a clear roadmap, that takes us right the way through to 2033. And there are many sports, actually, particularly women’s sports that have that clarity, and forward view. So we’re very proud of that. But we know it’s our job to absolutely make take full advantage of that.”
“We’re trying to grow the global game, and WXV allows us to take the game around the world more frequently, more often more rugby, for more fans, more visibility. So we’re going to New Zealand, we’re going to South Africa, we’re going to Dubai. And it’s an opportunity for 18 of the best teams in the world that qualify through a regional pathway.
“So it allows unions in their regions or route through to the top right through to qualification for a World Cup, essentially. And it’s an annual tournament gives us that visibility, and as our fans to watch those amazing players gives those players more competition and experience. Because in our game, I think as most of us know, there are not enough competition opportunities globally, for our amazing women to play.
“So it provides those opportunities more frequently more often. And from our perspective, obviously, there’s investment on and off the pitch to raise standards. So we’re trying to, again, lift the game, all ties, all boats lift together, and we’re trying to give those greater opportunities for those 18 countries around the world.”
After winning their fifth consecutive Women’s Six Nations title, England have been seeded into the WXV1. They are joined by 2023 Women’s Six Nations runners-up France and third placed Wales, as well as hosts New Zealand, Canada and Australia. This trio qualified after finishing as the top three in the 2023 Pacific Four Series, with the United States dropping down into WXV2.
England take on their opponents from outside of Europe, with fixtures lined up against Australia (October 20th, Wellington), Canada (October 27th, Dunedin), and New Zealand (November 4th, Auckland).
It was England vs New Zealand in the final of the 2021 Rugby World Cup (played in 2022), that smashed the attendance figures for a women’s rugby match. 42,579 fans packed themselves into Eden Park, to witness the Black Ferns win back-to-back Rugby World Cups. This record was then beaten in the latest Women’s Six Nations, as 58,498 fans witnessed England win the Grand Slam against France at Twickenham Stadium.
Horrax discussed how these record attendance figures are changing the global view of Women’s Rugby. The increased revenue from getting more fans through the turnstiles, has gone a long way to showcasing the sport to sponsors, and improving the overall reputation of Women’s rugby. Horrax highlighted this, and some other recent highly attended Women’s rugby matches that caught her attention in recent months.
“I mentioned before some of the revenue numbers in terms of growth of the game. But we can also see that the women’s game is enhancing the reputation of the game, it’s changing people’s perceptions of the whole sport. We can also see that one in five rugby fans coming to the game are new, as a result of women’s rugby, which is great for the whole game, in terms of actually being inclusive in terms of our fan base.
“But it’s also great for our revenue streams. We’re predicting a doubling of fans by 2033 to 286 million and a 10 times revenue commercial growth that I referenced earlier. So it’s a good news story both on and off the pitch.
“Talking briefly about the record breaking tournament last year, Rugby World Cup, and a sprint now to 2025. And I suppose what that demonstrated for us is that that fan base is growing, it gives us real confidence about the future potential of the sport, and that the work we’re doing with our partners. Just want to show you how global this movement is, I think it’s quite important.
“We sit here in France, a tremendous rugby stronghold for men and women. And we see that TikTok women’s Six Nations record breaking number, the finale of the France vs England game at 58,498. But it also happened in Australia. It also happened in Canada.
“I love this number for Madagascar. That was a Wednesday afternoon in Madagascar, schools gave their children the afternoons off, businesses released people to go and watch on a Wednesday afternoon 15,000 people turned out for the Rugby Africa Women’s Cup. And I think that’s just that gives me goosebumps that really encourages me, for all the new and emerging markets around the world that we’re moving to.”
A key element of the summit was a focus on elevating the status of female leadership, with rugby being a key focal point. Horrax discussed the significance of this growing trend in line with the progression of Women’s rugby, and highlighted some key figures in the process.
Horrax drew the panel and audiences’ attention to five key women in rugby coaching roles: Co-Head Coach of France Women Gaelle Mignot, Super Rugby Aupiki Head of Rugby and Head Coach of the Black Ferns Development side Whitney Hansen, South Africa Assistant Coach Laurian Johannes-Haupt, Harlequins Women Head Coach Amy Turner and Scottish Thistles Head Coach Claire Cruikshank.
“So how are we approaching our work? Leadership is at the core of everything we do, with the right leaders, men and women. But our focus today is on the women’s game and on women leaders.
“But we need that strong, clear, compelling leadership vision and the skills that sit behind it, to help us deliver that implement it and carry it through. And we work across six pillars of the game. So we’re trying to demonstrate accelerated growth, strong leadership, across visibility, across players and welfare, or performance and competitions or major events, trying to grow participation for girls and women and obviously grown up found that data and that revenue base.
“We’re seeing more professional careers for women on and off the pitch. We’re seeing a 38% growth in women and rugby girls playing. We’re seeing more competitive unions, and that will increase over time. The game is still relatively young. We’re seeing more iconic players in every country and now we’re seeing globally more paid professionals.
“We’re seeing top quality entertainment, we need to carry that through to more unions, more nations more competitions. We’re seeing the pathway start to put us on The foundations in place, and ultimately that should lead to financial sustainability.”
“And as you can see, here are five other examples of amazing women who are now at the top of their game. And working across sport is tremendous to see and there are many, many more the next generation of those female leaders coming through.”
World Rugby partners Capgemini play a key role in the development of Women leaders within sport. Capgemini run the ‘Women in Rugby Leadership Programme’, which offers 12 scholarships a year to ‘Women in Rugby’ to attend the Capgemini University. Estelle Maione, the Global Head of Learning at Capgemini and their University, explained this further.
“In figures and very tangibly what is the Capgemini woman leadership development program about? So we found out over the last two years, so far is 24 scholars that have enrolled in that program, the journey and paths of every scholar has been allocated a Capgemini coach.
“A Capgemini a coach is there to support the scholar along it’s one year of journey across the programme. And they are there to set very practical and tangible objectives for the development of the scholar. So based on that first coaching conversation, Each scholar has its own personalized development journey.”