Women’s RWC 2025 – What Has it Achieved?

After the final of the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025, in which England’s Red Roses capped off a remarkable tournament and run of three years, going undefeated to lift the trophy, there was one final media conference to close out the tournament. What did we learn and what was achieved at this fantastic tournament, which smashed all previous records for a Women’s RWC?

What World Rugby and the RWC 2025 Organising Committee Said?

World Rugby’s Chief Executive Alan Gilpin called the tournament “historic, special, incredible”, which he says showed “stratospheric” growth in the women’s game. He also, rightly, pointed out that the pinnacle tournament opened the door to let us see the players’ personalities and that the power of personality stood out.

“We’ve been involved in the greatest Rugby World Cup of all time, a tournament that delivered on every single level,” Gilpin added. “It didn’t just raise the bar, it’s gone stratospheric.”

There were indeed record-breaking crowds and interest, which peaked when England beat Canada in Saturday’s final at a record-breaking crowd at Allianz Stadium in Twickenham. Nearly half a million tickets were sold during the tournament (over three times compared to the previous RWC three years ago), and the biggest crowd attendance for a women’s game was broken twice in a single day at the final, peaking at 81,885.

Much of that has also been put down to the players and tournament visibility and engagement across social media channels and in the media, with Gilpin remarking that when players are happy, they play better.

Image Credit – World Rugby

Key Stats – Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025

Some key statistics and numbers from the final media briefing after the final day’s play include:

• 81,885 – New record attendance in the final for a women’s rugby match
• 133 – The tournament welcomed fans from 133 countries
• 53% – Of attendees were women
• 50% – Of attendees had never been to a women’s rugby match before
• 95% – Of all attendees say they plan to watch women’s rugby in the future
• 444,465 – Tickets sold across the tournament
• 92% – Of the total number of tickets available, 92% were sold

It Was a Succesful Tournament Based On Years of Hard Work

Sally Horrox, World Rugby Chief of Women’s Rugby, explained, “We came into the tournament with a pretty clear ambition, not just to host a spectacular competition, but to ignite that global shift in the game. And I think what we’ve witnessed is far beyond a single event. It is that blueprint for the future of rugby. I think we started with a fundamental belief that women are great rugby players, and our job wasn’t to invent a new product, but it’s to remove the obstacles and to provide the stage.

We’ve been working really hard over the last three years in a fresh approach, in a fresh way of working with our union partners, not just the 16 that were here in Rugby World Cup 2025, to give the game greater support, investment, and exposure.

We’ve all championed the game, we’ve all invested, we’ve restructured the calendar. We created this platform, but the female athletes, those amazing players, are delivering the rest.”

The Women’s Game Has Shown Improvement

Yvonne Nolan (Women’s RWC 2025 Competition Director) said of the differences between the teams competing and the improvement shown, “The stats tell the picture that there is a gap in places. In other places, those teams are very close, but they’re all gaining ground.

You’re looking at the product. It’s better than it has ever been and that trajectory is going to continue. You look at South Africa, what they’ve done, Fiji, how far they’ve come. We saw Brazil who have just burst onto the scene. Those teams are going to continue that growth, because they’re not going to be willing to be left behind.”

The former international player added that the teams showed there were different styles of rugby which can be played to win games.

Throughout the tournament, the ball-in-play time was improved, the number of tries increased, there were fewer knock-ons, more tactical kicking and a ten per cent improvement in conversion success, quicker ruck speeds, better discipline with fewer yellow cards in more matches played compared to the previous Women’s RWC.

• 36 minutes – Average ball-in-play time, up from the last Rugby World Cup.
• 9.2 – The average number of tries per match.
• 61% – Kicking success (penalties and conversions), a 10% increase compared to the previous tournament.

Was The Women’s RWC 2025 a Commercial Success?

There were two questions asked about the commercial success and the balance of ticket affordability. These are layered questions, and we appreciate that, but financial stability and sustainability are core concerns in the game at the moment.

Sally Horrox thinks there was a balance “because we deliberately chose an incredibly accessible strategy and pricing strategy to be as inclusive as we can, so that deliberate decision making over the scale of investment and the pace of change, I think, is going to be really important for us.

We have to build demand. If you think about how you measure success – reach, reward, return, reputation – all key pillars. Our focus has been on a serious and responsible approach to building demand, building reach, but we are also a business.

We’re a modern sports business, so we have to be able to turn that into a really commercially viable and successful World Cup. So we will pace that change as we work through the next cycle through to 2029 and 2033.”

Women’s RWC 2025 Managing Director, Sarah Massey, added, “The only thing I’d add is that it’s proven that we did the right thing. Of the total number of tickets that we had available, we’ve sold 92% and I think the most wonderful thing is how packed those stadiums were for the non-England matches, and so making those ticket prices accessible, and making sure it was attractive to families, putting it at weekends, making sure the schedule was not too many late night matches, really worked.”

She made the point that for the final, A Category tickets were £95, and hospitality was also priced at an “absolutely competitive corporate rate”. She commented, “But we showed throughout this tournament that you can charge more for tickets the later you go into the tournament, and the demand was there.”

Massey also said with her parting words as she moves on to a new role and wont be inbolve in RWC 2029, “Go bigger and bolder. It’s about belief and putting the right team in place.”

Image Credit – World Rugby

World Rugby also quoted the UK’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer on the impact the Red Roses have had and their claim of the “widespread financial success the tournament has brought.”

He said, “Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 has been an extraordinary success with record crowds, huge TV audiences and thrilling rugby. The tournament has been proof of the power of major sporting events to help grow the economy, make people happy and showcase the very best of our nation to the world.”

We have heard the RWC 2025 could be making a financial loss, but Alan Gilpin said that is not the case (see the video below).

“It was never going to be a loss. It was a deliberate investment, and that’s an important distinction to make. Was it a commercial success – absolutely. Sarah talked about valuing women’s sport, and we took a conscious decision not to give away tickets for free – they were sold….Ticketing revenues, brand awareness and commercial partnership revenues, merchandise sales – all succeeded initial forecasts. We continued to invest more, but kept our initial net investment at the agreed rate as we had a disciplined and important model we could take forward.

We will be making a mistake to talk about when the Women’s RWC tournament will be profitable. This one could have been profitable we chose to deliver standards that have never been seen before. The next one could be profitable, but we could choose to make a net investment.”

He and Sally Horrox went on to say that the value should be measured also in the new commercial partners, consumer-led activations increased, and that the marketing and value in kind will drive growth.

We don’t disagree with any of that, and we agree the tournament was massively successful, but it doesn’t seem to have generated extra cash flow for when unions ask for finances to actually invest in the game.

On another topic, it’s never been disclosed what the commercial partnerships signed were worth at RWC 2025. We have also heard that one of the reasons the Rugby World Cup hosting and bidding model is being split again after RWC 2033 is that some commercial partners just didn’t want to be involved in both tournaments (unverified).

Women’s Rugby Global Summit

The Women’s Rugby Global Summit took place the week leading up to the Women’s RWC 2025 final in London and was attended by 400 senior leaders and decision-makers from across the global rugby and sporting industries.

Selected facts and figures about fans of women’s rugby include:

• 49% have become fans in the last two years
• 31% say they were motivated to follow the sport because of major international tournaments and high-profile events
• 73% agree that brands have an authentic role to play in boosting the visibility of women’s rugby.

World Rugby’s Sally Horrox urged delegates to continue their work beyond Saturday’s trophy lift.

“Colleagues, partners, unions, brands, media companies, you feel everyone is going to take this back home and take the inspiration and put it into practice in their own country.  This energy never stops – it’s not just a slogan, it’s a whole way of thinking, it’s a whole way of behaving. It’s what’s going to drive the change.”

Image Credit – World Rugby

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