"Sold Out Final" - 5 Things We Learned: Women's Rugby World Cup Media Launch at Twickenham

It's been a shorter wait to bring around the latest installment of the pinnacle tournament within Women's rugby, as the 2021 competition was delayed by a year due to Covid. New Zealand hosted the showpiece event in 2022, with the Black Ferns winning their second consecutive World Cup crown, and their sixth in their decorated history.

Earlier today, a panel assembled in the Allianz Stadium, Twickenham, for the official briefing ahead of the first weekend of the competition. Covering everything from the record-breaking ticket sales to the how teams can qualify for the 2029 Women's Rugby World Cup in Australia, here are the five biggest talking points to come out of the conference. We'll start with some exciting news, with a full house expected on Saturday, September 27th.

Gill Whitehead, the Chair of the Board for the 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup, was delighted to unveil how Twickenham is set to welcome a capacity crowd once again. The WRWC Final on Saturday, September 27th will immediately follow the Bronze Final, with a double-header of action taking place at the home of English rugby. It looks like we're heading for a sold-out crowd, with 82,000 strong expected to set a new attendance record for a women's rugby event

"The final, we are very confident it will be the most attended women's rugby match in history, easily surpassing the 66,000 crowd that we saw in Paris 2024 [Olympic Sevens]. I can confirm today that the final at the Allianz Stadium will be a sell out." Whitehead said.

"You asked me about what I'm most proud of, and I think just reflecting on that final, the last time England hosted the Women's Rugby World Cup [2010], the girls played at the Stoop around the corner to a crowd of 13,000. I started playing women's rugby 30 years ago, I've absolutely loved it, but the prospect of the girls running out the tunnel and playing to the three tiers of Allianz, packed to the rafters. it's something perhaps I never or thought I would see. It's certainly what girls dreams are made of."

Following on from the news of an expected sell-out for the Women's Rugby World Cup Final, Managing Director Sarah Massey was on hand to deliver some more record-breaking news ahead of the opening round. Tickets have been selling thick and fast across England, with never before seen capacity crowds set to descend upon the pool stages. The ticket sales are only going to increase as the tournament progresses, with an incredible base-level already achieved by England 2025.

SARAH MASSEY: "We're ready to break records in attendances, viewership and engagement. This is going to be the biggest global celebration of women that we have ever seen. And we're really pleased today to be able to announce that we've now sold 375,000 tickets across all those matches, surpassing all our initial ticket targets and really showing what this tournament is going to bring. That's three times the number of tickets that were sold for the last Women's Rugby World Cup [in New Zealand]. Our message to fans is, don't miss out. This is going to be unmissable."

"So for Friday [England vs USA], we've sold over 40,000 tickets for the match in Sunderland, which is an incredible achievement for that opening match up in the North East. Across the board, again, massive ticket sales. We're looking at about 80% sold across all of the matches. But what you need to bear in mind is, obviously, for those quarter finals and semi finals, we don't yet know who those teams are.

"So at the moment, until we know who those teams are, we know people are going to continue to buy. And I think as soon as those matches get kicked off across our five locations, across this first weekend, and everybody sees that thrilling competition, and gets so excited about it, we know that those ticket sales are going to increase as we go every single day. We've already seen an uptick this week of ticket sales, which is how we've got to that number today."

Whilst the immediate excitement understandably surrounds the upcoming weeks for the 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup, the tournament organisers are already looking to the future for the next iteration of the global game's showpiece event. Former Ireland international Yvonne Nolan, who played at the 2006 and 2010 Women's Rugby World Cups, was on hand to provide the news in her role as General Counsel for World Rugby.

YVONNE NOLAN: "Then finally, as we look to continuing this journey and what comes next, it's exciting for these players to know that the next Rugby World Cup in Australia, in 2029 is not that far away. I can confirm that, in terms of planning for that, the four semi finalists from this tournament, plus Australia, if they're not in the semis, will qualify directly for their next Rugby World Cup.

"That will give certainty and opportunity for all of the players who are playing in this tournament, and allow them really, to continue that drive. So overall, I think, look, the support for the game has never been higher. We're here to help these players perform at their best in this pinnacle tournament. And I, for one, I just couldn't be more excited to see how it all plays out on the field."

The pedestal of professional women's rugby has never been higher across the globe. England have the PWR [Premiership Women's Rugby] arguably the best league on the planet, whilst the Celtic Challenge provides the pivotal next step professional sport for the top stars of Wales, Ireland and Scotland.

France boasts a healthy Women's club competition in the Elite 1, with New Zealand and Australia boasting Super Rugby Aupiki and Super W respectively, alongside their thriving provincial competitions. However, many of the incoming nations for the 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup don't have the luxury of professionalism, with ample support in place for the amateur players who are leaving their families and jobs behind, to participate in the upcoming tournament

SALLY HORRAX: "Supporting athletes, having an athlete centered approach, is fundamental to everything that the competition is doing and that we are doing at World Rugby. So, our performance teams have been working very closely on programmes with the unions to make sure that there is mental health support, for example, for those athletes who are away from home.

"Some of them have families, jobs, the game in many parts of the world is still an amateur to semi professional game, so they will be experiencing something very, very different. So we take our responsibilities very seriously.

"So there's that type of physical and mental health support programme in place. But there's also the Signify programme, the anti-online hate and abuse programme that we've invested in, which is really important so that we act on any online hate and abuse. Not just for our match officials, but we've extended that as well to all of the athletes and all of the teams that are in this competition."

YVONNE NOLAN: "I also just want to recognise the incredible work that some of the unions are doing to drive these standards on. We're seeing new teams coming through, Brazil, for example, the first South American representative team. I'm sure they will become firm fan favourites as their tournament goes on."

In 2023, World Rugby introduced WXV to help grow women's rugby across the globe. The tournament was split into three tiers (WXV1, 2 & 3) with qualification dependent on how well a side performed in their respective regional tournament that year (eg. Women's Six Nations or Pacific Four Series). It looks like the WXV is set for a shake-up along with a refined 'Global Rugby Calendar', that will add greater clarity to the Women's Test match landscape.

Also, a key element of the 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup is the 'Impact 25' campaign. The idea is that the legacy of the tournament has an influence upon the development of women's rugby across the world, with up and coming regions like Asia out to make their mark in the coming years. Only Japan was able to qualify for the 2025 Rugby World Cup from Asia, and the Brave Blossoms will lead the charge for 2029.

SALLY HORRAX: "Women's Rugby is 40 years old. This is the 10th edition of the World Cup, so we do need to take a moment enjoy and celebrate what is happening over these next six weeks, but also look beyond. On that point, we at World Rugby and with our unions, have created a global calendar, and we're very fortunate to have, in collaboration with our union partners, a really clear calendar set out now and a road map through to 2029 and to 2033.

"That's quite unique in sport, and very unique in women's sport, to have that clarity for the purposes of Planning and Investment, purpose and momentum. So what we experience here in England will be that launch pad, that launch pad that Yvonne [Nolan] in particular, spoke to for future growth and success in Australia in 2029 and in America in 2033 and those are their future hosts for our World Cup markets."

"So we've been working in partnership with the unions. First of all, we sketched out the global calendar, and we got agreement to that, and then over the last 12 months, we've been working on the evolution of the WXV competition into what will become a WXV global series. You'll hear more about that at a press conference over the coming weeks."

"I would love to continue the conversation specifically about Asia. One of the programmes we'll talk about is 'impact beyond 2025'. Because it's essential, and that's a comprehensive impact programme that World Rugby is leading and investing in. It's essential that the impact momentum and excitement of this tournament is felt beyond the 16 countries that are participating in this tournament.

"I had a fantastic experience as part of a regional summit in Asia, with many of your partner unions. Some great female and male leaders in the room at the summit, we crafted some fantastic growth plans for those unions together across Asia. We worked hard to work on up-skilling many women in the room around how they could support the development of women's rugby in Asia."