World Rugby held their ticketing launch event for the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup today, as England gets ready to host next the showpiece tournament next September and October. 2025 WRWC Managing Director Sarah Massey, and World Rugby Ticketing Director Paul Lemon were on hand at Twickenham’s Web Ellis House, to provide all the information ahead of next year’s competition.
The 2025 WRWC kicks off on August 22nd, with Sunderland’s Stadium of Light set to host the opening fixture. The Red Roses will be in action for the competition’s first match, with their opponent set to be confirmed once all 16 teams have qualified for the competition. The press conference confirmed an abundance of information regarding next year’s tournament, as everything from ticket prices to hosting stadia was announced this morning in South West London.
Here are the top five talking points from the press conference event, as the countdown to the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup officially begins.
1. Stadiums: Twickenham to Host Double-Header Finals & Eight Host Venues Announced
The eight venues for the 2025 RWC have been confirmed, with the competition hosting fixtures up and down the country. Starting with the showpiece fixtures, the Rugby World Cup Final and the Bronze Final will be hosted as a double-header at Twickenham Stadium, with the goal of setting a new attendance record for a women’s rugby match, at none other than the stadium known as ‘HQ’. Also, the seven regional locations have been announced, along with the four venues for the Red Roses matches.
SARAH MASSEY: “So we know that we’re going countrywide. I think we’ve said many times we’ve got eight iconic venues that we’re going to and we know that we will have 16 teams who are all vying to be crowned the world champions.”
“We know it’s super accessible as well. So 95% of the population will be within a two hour travel time of the venue making sure that they are able to support their regions and and support those teams that will be playing there. Really importantly, we’ve got over 400,000 tickets, which will be made available for people to do just that.”
“So of our eight venues, six will host the pool matches. s we know starting off with the Stadium of Light in Sunderland. We will have our pool matches in York (York Community Stadium) in Franklin’s Gardens in Northampton, Sandy Park in Exeter. So the (Salford) Community Stadium up in Manchester and Brighton and Hove Albion Stadium (Amex Stadium) so they are our pool match phase venues.
“Then as we go through we will move to our quarterfinals, and our semi finals. So quarterfinals will take place at Exeter’s Sandy Park and Bristol’s Ashton gate. I’m sure many of you were at the PWR final at the weekend at Sandy Park, over 7,000 in the stadium, really a fantastic match and it shows how the domestic game is growing as well.
“So, really excited to be going to Exeter for those quarterfinals. Bristol will then hold both of the semi finals. Bristol again saw record breaking attendances, when England played Wales in the Women’s Six Nations this year.”
“Then the all important Red Roses matches so we know already their opening match. We’ve already announced their opening match, they will be in Sunderland. But the other pool stage games will be in Northampton and Brighton & Hove, and if they make it through which we obviously hope they will do through to the knockout stages, they will be there.
“Quarterfinals and semi-finals are both in Bristol (for England). Now we’re looking at that where England’s matches are going to be. But obviously we’ve got another another 15 teams which will be playing in the tournament.”
2. Rugby World Cup qualification processes – nine of the 16 teams have secured their place
Nine out of the 16 teams have been confirmed for the upcoming Women’s Rugby World Cup, with the playing field filling out well for the tournament. The draw for the pool stages will take place later this Autumn, once the final qualification tournaments have been played throughout the three tiers of WXV.
SARAH MASSEY: “So, we know nine of them already super exciting. So we’ve got England, New Zealand, France, Canada, Ireland to qualified from the Six Nations, South Africa, America and we were recently joined from their regional competitions. We’ve been joined by Japan and Fiji. We’ve got one more team, it’s still to qualify from the regional competitions.
“That’s happening this weekend. So, the all important match the Sudamerica play-off between Brazil and Colombia. And then of course, the last remaining six places will come from our WXV competition later this year played in Vancouver, South Africa and Dubai and the sixth top ranked teams who are not yet qualified at the end of that competition, we’ll make up our remaining places.
“We’ll know those teams by the middle of October 12 of October when WXV finishes, we will know that so very soon after that we will hold our pool draw. Very soon after that, we will be releasing our full match schedule. So that’s when excitement will really start to build we’ll know where all of those teams are going to play, which locations, and the cities are really going to get behind those countries that will be going to play in their regions.”