How does the Rugby World Cup work? Everything you need to know about the upcoming home tournament

Emma Griffiths

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How does the Rugby World Cup work? Everything you need to know about the upcoming home tournament image

What is the Women’s Rugby World Cup?

The tournament was first held in 1991, but it wasn’t until the 1998 that the women’s competition received official backing from World Rugby.

It takes place every four years, just like the timings of the men’s tournament, and always runs the year before the Men’s Rugby World Cup.

The competition originally included 12 countries, split into four groups of three for the pool stages. The 2025 tournament heralds the first expansion of the competition since 2006, with a record 16 countries being represented across four groups of four.

Where is the Women’s Rugby World Cup being hosted?

England are hosting the Women’s Rugby World Cup for the second time, having previously hosted in 2010. In past years, host countries have included Wales, Scotland, Netherlands, Spain, France, Ireland and, most recently, New Zealand in 2022.

The tournament will take place in stadiums across England. The full list of host cities is:

Host City	Stadium	Capacity
Brighton and Hove	Albion Stadium	31,800
Bristol	Ashton Gate Stadium	26,387
Exeter	Sandy Park	15,000
London	Allianz Stadium	82,000
Manchester	Salford Community Stadium	11,404
Northampton	Franklin's Gardens	15,148
Sunderland	The Stadium of Light	48,707
York	York Community Stadium	8,510

What are the pools?

There are four pools for the group stages of the upcoming Women’s Rugby World Cup, who will all play within their groups for the first phase of the competition. The winners and runners-up of each group will then progress to the knockout stages.

The pools are:

Pool A - England, Australia, USA and Samoa

Pool B - Canada, Scotland, Wales and Fiji

Pool C - New Zealand, Japan, Ireland and Spain

Pool D - France, Italy, South Africa and Brazil

Where to stream the Women's Rugby World Cup?

All of the Women's Rugby World Cup matches will be streamed live and on catch-up on BBC and the England Rugby YouTube channel.

Rugby news and related links

Emma Griffiths

Emma Griffiths is a freelance journalist who, in combination with completing her degree from the University of Bristol, specialises in covering women’s rugby and football. Specialising in the human, player-first coverage of these rapidly growing sports, her work centres on amplifying attention and female voices through engaging, investigative and comprehensive storytelling drawing attention to the unique and developing landscape of women’s sport.