England Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 – What We Learned from Week 1

Records tumbled, crowds rejoiced, the RWC 2025 final is a sell-out, and engagement is at an all-time high – England Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 is knocking down barriers with female-led shoulders on and off the field. As we enter the second weekend of pool matches, we look at just some of the key highlights and takeaways from the opening week.

Sarah Massey, Managing Director, Rugby World Cup 2025, said: “Each venue and each team is bringing their own individual personality to the tournament. But I think what’s really consistent across all the matches we’ve seen so far is the electric atmosphere, just the joy and the vibrancy of the fans and that sense and feeling that they’re part of something that’s really, really special.

The fans are loving it. We send out a post-match survey to all who attended, and they are replying in their thousands, saying how much they are enjoying the fan experience overall, so really good news.”

The tournament is aiming to shift perceptions and raise women’s rugby profile, and its working.

Opening Round Engagement and Fans at Rugby World Cup 2025

• 85,000+ fans attended matches, which is a new record
• Sunderland’s Stadium of Light opening game between England and the USA had an attendance of 42,723 fans – the biggest ever crowd for a Women’s Rugby World Cup game.
• There was a peak of 1.5 million viewers for the Red Roses v USA match on BBC1
• In France, on TF1, 3.2 million watched, which is a national record for women’s rugby
• A total of 77 million video views were recorded on World Rugby platforms, alongside 3.6 million engagements across Rugby World Cup digital channels.
• The tournament has engaged with the likes of TikTok and Snapchat and has more broadcast partners globally.
• There are 500 media at the RWC 2025, which surpasses previous tournaments.

Sarah Massey explained, “I think it just shows that the new audiences that we’ve got coming to rugby, they’re there just to watch the joy and the spectacle on the pitch. They’re there to celebrate and really cheer on the teams that are playing some amazing rugby and scoring those amazing tries, but they’re equally there to support the Samoans and the Spanish who were there playing joyful rugby and putting on an amazing experience for those fans.”

Ticket Sales England Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025

• More than 400,000 tickets have now been sold at the tournament – surpassing previous Women’s Rugby World Cup records.

Team Records RWC 2025 Opening Round

• 481 points were scored across the opening round of pool games at RWC 2025.
• 72 tries were scored.
• Both Scotland and South Africa secured their first wins since 2010.
• Samoa’s first RWC appearance since 2014.

It is a very different tournament compared to the others we have covered. It’s not that results dont matter, but the groundswell of support is embracing where Women’s rugby is at and where it’s been and could go. So much of the audience is new to the game, too.

On the narrative of the mismatches in the opening round and that this could be a theme through the pool stages, Yvonne Nolan, Competition Director for Rugby World Cup 2025, answered it best.

“If you like free-flowing rugby and you like to see tries, you’re seeing it. 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.”

She added from her experience as a player, “In 2006, I was beaten by France 43-0. Today, Ireland comes into this competition ranked fifth, just behind France. So 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.”

Individual Player Records RWC 2025 Round 1

• It is tough to look beyond Canada’s Julia Schell, who scored 6 tries within 23 minutes and broke several records in the process.
• Elsewhere, there were also hat-tricks for three players in the opening round: Desiree Miller (Australia), Francesca McGhie (Scotland), and Aseza Hele (South Africa).
• Two players also had three try assists: Justine Pelletier (Canada) and Renee Holmes (New Zealand).
• Special shoutout to the kickers with Dannah O’Brien (Ireland) 1slotting 6/6 in the win over Japan.
• Brazilian Raquel Kochhann scored the Yaras’ first-ever World Cup points in the 6-66 loss to South Africa in Northampton
• Portia Woodman-Wickliffe extended her Rugby World Cup try-scoring record to 21, and one more try will see her sit on top of the NZ Men’s and Women’s international try-scoring charts with 50!

What World Rugby Said

Photo Credit – World Rugby / RWC 2025

Emma Marshall, Senior Communications Manager at World Rugby: “What an epic opening weekend for Women’s Rugby World Cup England 2025. The energy and atmosphere at every single game has been nothing short of electric. Women’s Rugby World Cup fever has well and truly taken hold, not just in England, but around the world.”

Sarah Massey, Managing Director, Rugby World Cup 2025, on the second weekend of fixtures: “We’ve got four matches this weekend heading for a sellout, and we are constantly trying to make sure that we’re putting back tickets. Keep checking the website because tickets will become available. We’ve started really strongly, we are looking forward to this weekend. We’ve done what we said. This is an accessible tournament. You can engage with it in so many different ways. Keep watching us. We’re going to smash it even more.”

Yvonne Nolan, Competition Director for Rugby World Cup 2025: “All of this would have been unimaginable for me when I played in the World Cup in 2006 and 2010. So personally, I found it quite emotional, actually, sitting in the stand watching all of this play out. The last Rugby World Cup in this country was only 15 years ago. And look how far we have come. It is incredible.”

Sally Horrox, Chief of Women’s Rugby at World Rugby: “Personally, what struck me, I travelled like Sarah from Sunderland to Manchester to York, but it felt like a statement, not just a tournament launch. It felt like women’s rugby had arrived on the world stage, and it’s only going to get better. It’s going to grow from here, and there is more to come. That was an overwhelming feeling as I travelled and met and talked to the teams and the players and those organising the tournament.”

England Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 News

• Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 Title Sequences Commissioned by 16 Female Artists From Participating Nations.
• The Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 is Here and We Are All For It.
• Women’s Rugby World Cup England 2025 Sees an Increase in The Number of Female Coaches Involved.