There is less than one year to go until women’s rugby returns home, with England hosting the Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2025.
Teams from 16 nations and their fans will descend upon the country, ahead of the opener on 22 August, all aiming to make the final at the Allianz Stadium in Twickenham on 27 September 2025.
Hosts, England, are favourites alongside New Zealand to win and if both teams reach the final, it will emulate the previous two finals of the tournament.
The tournament also holds the potential to set a new world record attendance for women’s rugby union, which currently stands at 58,498 and was also set at Twickenham during last year’s Six Nations.
Those involved in women’s rugby, whether that be as a fan, a player or member of staff, are eagerly awaiting the tournament following England’s defeats to New Zealand in the 2021 and 2017 World Cup finals.
Director of Women’s Rugby at Saracens, Alex Austerberry, labelled it the “perfect storm” for the tournament to return to England.
Austerberry said: “We’ve got a great track record as a country of hosting major sporting events, and you see how it captures the imagination of the nation.
“It does inspire people to be engaged with whatever sport is going on and for that to be rugby next summer, for it to be front and centre of the sporting calendar, will be absolutely fantastic.
“In turn, it just gives an unbelievable platform for women’s rugby to explode onto the national and global scene in terms of a real sporting entity.
“For me, it’s where it will take the game domestically that I am most looking forward to. People and youngsters will be able to see the greatest athletes playing on the biggest stages.
“It will be the start of something special and that’s what excites me. If we get this right, we can catapult the game to another level and send it into the stratosphere.
“If you’ve got any interest in world class sport, world class athletes, people doing incredible things, then it’s going to be a whole summer of that happening.
“There’s a sense of the community that comes with rugby as a sport, and certainly with the women’s side of things, how connected you can be with the players and how connected they are in return with all the fans.
“You don’t want to be looking on the outside, you want to be front and centre of that spectacle.”
Tickets go on pre-sale for those who have pre-registered their interest through the Women’s Rugby World Cup website on Tuesday at 10am.
There is an aura building in the air that this tournament will revolutionise not just women’s rugby, but also women’s sport as a whole in England.
As the days count down to kick off, fans across the world will be brewing with excitement to witness the ever-growing Women’s Rugby World Cup – it will not be one to miss.
Featured image credit: Christophe95 via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0 licence
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