Crouch. Set. Re-engage. A sporting summer in which England’s women have already taken centre stage begins a powerful second act on Friday night as the Red Roses kick off the Women’s Rugby World Cup in Sunderland. The Lionesses have already shattered many perceptions in winning the Women’s Euros twice. Now the Red Roses hope to forcibly ram home the message.
More than 40,000 fans will be at the Stadium of Light to see England begin their campaign against the United States, with millions more expected to watch it live on BBC One. The result is expected to be a rout. In fact, anyone betting £100 on the Red Roses to win will get just 10p in winnings if they are successful.
Unsurprisingly the Red Roses are also huge favourites for the tournament, having lost only one of their past 58 matches. That defeat came in the 2022 World Cup final against New Zealand, one of the few teams apart from England to have a squad of professional players.
But while the teams fight it out for the World Cup trophy, a separate battle for hearts and minds will also take place over the next month as organisers attempt to capitalise on the growing popularity of the women’s game across the globe.
“Our ambition for this tournament goes far beyond the pitch,” says Sarah Massey, the Women’s Rugby World Cup managing director. “We want to use the platform that this tournament has to empower real change.
“We want to be able to show that women and girls can be anything, do anything and belong anywhere in rugby, in sport and in society. And we want to use this to break down barriers and challenge stereotypes. If you can’t see it, you can’t be it.”
Those are lofty words but organisers insist they are backed up with action by its all-women leadership team. Fourteen of the 16 teams’ security advisers are women, 62% of volunteers are women and the pitch for the final – which will be staged in front of a record-breaking crowd of 82,000 people at the Allianz Stadium in Twickenham – will be prepared by an all-women grounds team.
These are exciting times for women’s rugby, but even its most ardent supporters acknowledge that the sport is still at least a decade behind women’s football. The world No 2 ranked team, Canada, are still largely amateur and have had to raise funds from businesses to help them prepare, while many players are taking annual leave from their day jobs to play in England.
That perhaps adds to the tournament’s charm. Nonetheless, the gap between the best – England, Canada, New Zealand and France – and the rest also remains large, and there will be huge mismatches in the group stages. However organisers insist the expansion from 12 to 16 teams will help the game develop globally in the long run.
“We’ve made the decision to grow the game,” says Sally Horrox, the chief of Women’s Rugby World Cup. “But it’s worth acknowledging that the unions around the world are all on a very different stage of their development, and that will reflect in some of the scorelines.
“However, we are getting to a more competitive game with really rapid strides being made by a number of countries around the world. So we are confident that we are on the right trajectory.”
Notably, the women’s game already has one mainstream star: the American Ilona Maher, who has more than five million followers on Instagram and appeared on Dancing With The Stars. But World Rugby is hoping that she could be the first of many in the US, with the 2028 Olympics to be staged in Los Angeles and the Rugby World Cups of 2031 and 2033 also being held in the US.
Meanwhile back in Britain, UK Sport insists that the Women’s Rugby World Cup is the start of a range of events – including the Women’s T20 Cricket World Cup in 2026, Tour de France Femme in 2027, and bids for future World Athletics Championships and Women’s World Cup – to push women’s sport.
“We see this tournament as the spark to light a decade of progression of women’s sport in the UK over the next 10 years,” says Esther Britten, the head of major events at UK Sport. “We want to showcase women’s sport at its very best and to inspire millions.”
It is a message shared by Horrox on the eve of a Women’s World Cup she believes will be a gamechanger for the sport. “As a tournament, we are ready,” she says.
“We’re ready to break records in attendance, viewership and engagement. This is going to be the biggest global celebration of women’s rugby that we have ever seen. I’ve no doubt it’s going to be inspirational. It’s going to inspire the next generation of children, girls and boys and new fans, and bring them to this sport.”
