World Rugby has hit back at suggestions of a Women’s Rugby World Cup lacking in competitiveness, insisting that “the arm-wrestles will come” after a number of lopsided results on the opening weekend of the tournament.
Attendance and engagement records were broken on the opening three days of the event in England, but the closest margin of victory in any of the eight pool matches was France’s 24-0 win over Italy.
An anticipated close clash between Scotland and Wales failed to materialise with Bryan Easson’s side uber-impressive in securing a 38-8 win in Salford, while tournament favourites England, New Zealand and Canada all scored in excess of 50 points - with Canadian full-back Julia Schell running in six second-half tries against Fiji.
Lopsided scorelines have been a theme of the Women’s Six Nations in recent years as England, particularly, and France have increasingly dominated the competition, and also occur regularly at men’s World Cups.
The 2023 tournament saw Romania’s men concede an average of more than 70 points a game, while an improving Italy, who finished third in Pool A, conceded 96 points in a defeat to the All Blacks.
With the 16 teams competing at the tournament at different stages in their journeys towards professionalism, and many of the players competing amateurs, a gulf in quality in certain fixtures is likely to continue, perhaps even as far as until the semi-final stage.
But World Rugby is confident that closer contests will come in time, both at this tournament and beyond.
"If you like free-flowing rugby and you like to see tries, you're seeing it,” Yvonne Nolan, competition director and a former Ireland international, said. “If you like an arm wrestle, it will come. These matches are going to get tighter and tighter as we get through the pools and into the knockouts.
"Part of this is again the trajectory of this game. Different teams are at different stages of their development. They all deserve to be here. I certainly, as a player, have been on the receiving end of some very one-sided results. In 2006 I was beaten by France 43-0. Today, Ireland come into this competition ranked fifth, just behind France.
“It's part of the growth, part of the development. If we all get behind these teams, that performance gap will close, but certainly I would say watch and wait. The arm wrestles will come."
Off the pitch, a potentially transformative tournament began with a new record Women’s World Cup crowd of 42,723 in Sunderland, with more than 85,000 fans in attendance across the opening weekend overall. More than 400,00 tickets have now been sold for the competition, and four matches on the second weekend are approaching sellouts.
A peak audience of 2.4m tuned into the Red Roses’ opening win over the United States on BBC One, while the France-Italy encounter recorded 3.2m viewers on TF1 in France on Saturday evening. Four matches on the second weekend are approaching sellouts.
