2021 Rugby World Cup

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This article is about the women's rugby union World Cup. For the men's rugby league World Cup, see 2021 Rugby League World Cup.
"2021 Women's Rugby World Cup" redirects here. For the women's rugby league World Cup, see 2021 Women's Rugby League World Cup.
2021 Rugby World Cup
2021 Rugby World Cup Logo.png
Tournament details
Host nation New Zealand
Dates8 October 2022 – 12 November 2022
No. of nations12
Tournament statistics
Matches played26
← 2017
2025 →

The 2021 Rugby World Cup is scheduled to be the ninth edition of the Rugby World Cup for women, to be held in New Zealand in the cities of Auckland and Whangārei. It was originally to be held in 2021, but was officially postponed by a year in March 2021 due to COVID-19.[1] This will be the first women's Rugby World Cup to be held in the southern hemisphere. The eighth World Cup was played in 2017 in Dublin and Belfast, setting record attendances and viewership numbers.[2][3]

In May 2018, it was announced that the format of the World Cup would be changing for the next World Cup with classification matches being replaced with quarter finals.[4][5]

On 21 August 2019, World Rugby announced that gender designations would be removed from the title of the women's World Cup. All World Cup tournaments from 2021 forward, whether for men or women, will be officially called the "Rugby World Cup" with a year designation.[6]

It was originally scheduled to be held between 18 September and 16 October 2021. On 2 March 2021, World Rugby announced it recommended to postpone the tournament to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic (with the decision to be officially made later the following week), as "it has become clear in recent discussions with key partners including New Zealand Rugby, the New Zealand government and participating unions, that, given the scale of the event and the COVID-19 related uncertainties, it is just not possible to deliver the environment for all teams to be the best that they can be on the sport's greatest stage."[7]

New dates and branding for the tournament were revealed on 12 May 2021, with the window being increased from 35 to 43 days, from 8 October to 12 November 2022.[8]

New Zealand are the defending champions.

Host selection[]

The schedule for World Rugby to select a host country is:

  1. 31 May 2018 — Unions formally confirm an expression of interest in bidding. Six unions confirmed their interest in bidding — four European nations (France, England, Wales, and Portugal); and two southern hemisphere nations (New Zealand and Australia).
  2. 10 August 2018 — Unions submit bids to World Rugby. Both Australia and New Zealand have publicly announced that they have submitted bids to host the tournament, which has never been held in the southern hemisphere.
  3. 14 November 2018 — World Rugby Council selects tournament host in Dublin.[9]

New Zealand will host the 2021 Rugby World Cup, as announced by World Rugby on 14 November 2018. It will be the first women's Rugby World Cup to be held in the southern hemisphere.

Venues[]

Three venues are set to host and all are on the North Island. Three opening games will be hosted at New Zealand's national stadium Eden Park. Furthermore, it will also host the semi-finals, 3rd place play-off and final. Other pool games as well as the quarter-finals will be held at Semenoff Stadium and Waitakere Stadium.

class=notpageimage|
Locations of the 2021 Rugby World Cup
Auckland Whangārei Auckland
Eden Park Semenoff Stadium Waitakere Stadium
Capacity: 60,000 Capacity: 30,000 Capacity: 4,901
Eden Park cropped.jpg Trusts Stadium From Central Park Drive.jpg

Qualifying[]

Main article: 2021 Rugby World Cup qualifying

New Zealand, the host nation, had already qualified automatically winning the 2017 tournament before being announced as hosts. A further six teams (England, France, United States, Canada, Australia and Wales) qualified automatically as top seven finishers at the 2017 tournament. Scotland was announced as the winner of the repechage tournament on 25 February 2022.

Qualified teams[]

Africa Americas Asia Europe Oceania
Automatic Qualifiers
Regional Qualifiers
Cross-Regional
Repechage play-off [a]
Repechage
tournament
Qualified team
  1. ^ South America/Africa play-off: South America 1 will progress to a play-off with the second-placed team from Africa to determine the fourth team to compete in the Repechage. Repechage tournament: The final team to qualify for RWC 2021 will be decided via the new Repechage tournament, which will take place in 2020. The tournament will consist of the second placed teams in the Asia, Europe and Oceania regional tournaments and the winner of the play-off between South America and second-placed team from the Africa regional qualifier.
  2. ^ Samoa withdrew from the Repechage tournament due to COVID-19 related restrictions.
Qualified teams
Region Team Qualification
method 		Previous
apps 		Previous best result World Rugby
Ranking
Africa  South Africa 2019 Rugby Africa Women's Cup winners 3 Tenth place (2010, 2014) 13
Asia  Japan 2021 Asia Rugby Women's Championship winners
(by World Rankings) 		4 Eighth place (1994) 12
Europe  England Top 7 in 2017 8 Champions (1994, 2014) 1
 France Top 7 in 2017 8 Third place (1991, 1994, 2002, 2006, 2014, 2017) 3
 Italy European Qualification tournament winners 4 Plate semi-finals (Seventh/Eighth place) (1991) 8
 Wales Top 7 in 2017 6 Fourth place (1994) 11
 Scotland Final Qualification Tournament winners 5 Fifth place (1994) 9
North America  Canada Top 7 in 2017 8 Runners-up (2014) 4
 United States Top 7 in 2017 8 Champions (1991) 6
Oceania  Australia Top 7 in 2017 6 Third place (2010) 5
 Fiji Oceania play-off winners 0 N/A 21
 New Zealand Top 7 in 2017/Hosts 7 Champions (1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2017) 2

Draw[]

Seedings for the pools of the 2021 World Cup were based on the teams' respective World Rugby Rankings. The draw, hosted by sports pundit and former English and British and Irish Lions international Ugo Monye and sports journalist and presenter Elma Smit, was conducted on 20 November 2020 in the SkyCity Theatre in Auckland, and used the World Rankings as of 1 January 2020, before the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the first case in which the Women's World Cup was drawn based on World Rankings instead of classification from the previous World Cup.[10][11] The automatic qualifiers from 2017 were allocated to their respective bands based on their rankings - and the remaining 5 qualifying places were allocated to Bands 3 and 4 based on previous World Cup playing strength:

  • Band 1, made up of the top 3 automatic qualifiers, (1–3)
  • Band 2, made up of the next 3 automatic qualifiers, (4–6)
  • Band 3, made up of the 7th automatic qualifier, Europe 1 and Africa 1
  • Band 4, made up of Asia 1, Oceania 1 and Repechage winner

This meant the 12 teams, qualified and qualifiers, were seeded thus:

Band 1 Band 2 Band 3 Band 4

The pools were respectively drawn by New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, former Black Ferns internationals, Melodie Robinson and Farah Palmer and former All Blacks international, Dan Carter.

Pool stage[]

Each pool will be a single round-robin of six games, in which each team will play one match against each of the other teams in the same pool. Teams are awarded four points for a win, two points for a draw. A team that scores four or more tries earns a bonus point, as does a team that loses by less than eight points.

The tournament will comprise twelve teams divided into three pools of four teams. The top two teams in each pool, as well as the best two third-placed teams progress to the quarter-finals.

Fixtures were announced on 28 January 2021.

Pool A[]

Team
  • v
 Pld W D L TF PF PA +/− BP Pts
 New Zealand 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 +0 0 0
 Australia 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 +0 0 0
 Wales 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 +0 0 0
 Scotland 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 +0 0 0
Test no. 1---
8 October 2022 19:15 		New Zealand  v  Australia Eden Park, Auckland
[-/-/-]
Test no. 1---
9 October 2022 17:15 		Wales  v  Scotland Semenoff Stadium, Whangārei
[-/-/-]
Test no. 1---
15 October 2022 15:00 		Australia  v  Scotland Semenoff Stadium, Whangārei
[-/-/-]
Test no. 1---
16 October 2022 15:15 		New Zealand  v  Wales Waitakere Stadium, Auckland
[-/-/5]
Test no. 1---
22 October 2022 14:15 		Australia  v  Wales Semenoff Stadium, Whangārei
[-/-/5]
Test no. 14--
22 October 2022 16:45 		New Zealand  v  Scotland Semenoff Stadium, Whangārei
[-/-/-]

Pool B[]

Team
  • v
 Pld W D L TF PF PA +/− BP Pts
 Canada 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 +0 0 0
 United States 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 +0 0 0
 Italy 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 +0 0 0
 Japan 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 +0 0 0
Test no. 1---
9 October 2022 12:45 		United States  v  Italy Semenoff Stadium, Whangārei
[-/-/-]
Test no. 1---
9 October 2022 15:15 		Canada  v  Japan Semenoff Stadium, Whangārei
[-/-/-]
Test no. 1---
15 October 2022 17:30 		United States  v  Japan Semenoff Stadium, Whangārei
[-/-/-]
Test no. 1---
16 October 2022 12:45 		Canada  v  Italy Waitakere Stadium, Auckland
[-/-/-]
Test no. 1---
23 October 2022 12:45 		Italy  v  Japan Waitakere Stadium, Auckland
[-/-/-]
Test no. 1---
23 October 2022 15:15 		Canada  v  United States Waitakere Stadium, Auckland
[-/-/-]

Pool C[]

Team
  • v
 Pld W D L TF PF PA +/− BP Pts
 England 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 +0 0 0
 France 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 +0 0 0
 South Africa 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 +0 0 0
 Fiji 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 +0 0 0
Test no. 1---
8 October 2022 14:15 		France  v  South Africa Eden Park, Auckland
[-/-/4]
Test no. 1---
8 October 2022 16:45 		England  v  Fiji Eden Park, Auckland
[-/-/1]
Test no. 1---
15 October 2022 20:00 		England  v  France Semenoff Stadium, Whangārei
[-/-/-]
Test no. 1---
16 October 2022 17:45 		South Africa  v  Fiji Waitakere Stadium, Auckland
[-/-/1]
Test no. 1---
22 October 2022 19:15 		France  v  Fiji Semenoff Stadium, Whangārei
[-/-/1]
Test no. 1---
23 October 2022 17:45 		England  v  South Africa Waitakere Stadium, Auckland
[-/-/6]

Knockout stage[]

 
Quarter-finalsSemi-finalsFinal
 
          
 
29 October – Whangārei
 
 
 
 
5 November – Auckland (Eden)
 
 
 
Winner Quarter-Final 1
 
29 October – Whangārei
 
Winner Quarter-Final 2
 
 
 
12 November – Auckland (Eden)
 
 
 
Winner Semi-Final 1
 
30 October – Auckland (Waitakere)
 
Winner Semi-Final 2
 
 
 
5 November – Auckland (Eden)
 
 
 
Winner Quarter-Final 3
 
30 October – Auckland (Waitakere)
 
Winner Quarter-Final 4Third place
 
 
 
12 November – Auckland (Eden)
 
 
 
Loser Semi-Final 1
 
 
Loser Semi-Final 2
 

Quarter-finals[]

Test: 1--- 29 October 2022 16:30 v Semenoff Stadium, Whangārei
[-/-/-]
  


Test: 1--- 29 October 2022 19:30 v Semenoff Stadium, Whangārei
[-/-/-]
  


Test: 1--- 30 October 2022 13:30 v Waitakere Stadium, Auckland
[-/-/-]
  


Test: 1--- 30 October 2022 16:30 v Waitakere Stadium, Auckland
[-/-/-]
  

Semi-finals[]

Test: 1--- 5 November 2022 16:30 Winner Quarter-final 1 v Winner Quarter-final 2 Eden Park, Auckland
[-/-/-]
  


Test: 1--- 5 November 2022 19:30 Winner Quarter-final 3 v Winner Quarter-final 4 Eden Park, Auckland
[-/-/-]
  

Third-place play-off[]

Test: 1--- 12 November 2022 16:30 Loser Semi-final 1 v Loser Semi-final 2 Eden Park, Auckland
[-/-/-]
  

Final[]

Test: 1--- 12 November 2022 19:30 Winner Semi-final 1 v Winner Semi-final 2 Eden Park, Auckland
[-/-/-]
  

Broadcasting[]

Spark Sport will be the host broadcaster for the Rugby World Cup, broadcasting all matches live[12] and on demand[13] through its online streaming platform. TVNZ will broadcast a selection of games free-to-air on New Zealand television.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "2021 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand postponed a year". The New Zealand Herald. 10 Mar 2021. Retrieved 2021-03-10.
  2. ^ Brooke, Colin (2018). "Six countries in running for 2021 Women's RWC, including one you wouldn't expect". Rugby Pass. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  3. ^ Philips, Sam (2018). "World Rugby announce 2021 WRWC bidders". Rugby.com. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  4. ^ "Women's Rugby World Cup: Format changes announced for 2021 tournament". BBC Sport. 10 May 2018. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
  5. ^ Orchard, Sara (2018). "Women's Rugby World Cup: Format changes announced for 2021 tournament". BBC. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  6. ^ "World Rugby announces gender neutral naming for Rugby World Cup tournaments" (Press release). World Rugby. 21 August 2019. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
  7. ^ "2021 World Cup set to be postponed for year". BBC Sport. Retrieved 2021-03-03.
  8. ^ "2021 World Cup new dates revealed". World Rugby. 12 May 2021. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  9. ^ World Rugby (2018). "Record hosting interest for Women's Rugby World Cup 2021". World Rugby. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  10. ^ "Date set for 2021 Rugby World Cup draw". World Rugby. 19 October 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  11. ^ "Confirmation of 2021 Rugby World Cup draw". World Rugby. 12 November 2020. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  12. ^ "RWC 2021 - Women's Rugby World cup Live Stream, TV Guide". RugbyOnlineStreams.com. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  13. ^ a b "RWC 2021 set to break new ground as tournament dates are announced". World Rugby. 3 February 2020. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
  14. ^ "Rugby Canada (Design, Hosting, Registration & Administration tools by esportsdeskpro.com)". www.rugbycanada.ca. Archived from the original on 12 October 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  15. ^ "Rugby Canada (Design, Hosting, Registration & Administration tools by esportsdeskpro.com)". www.rugbycanada.ca. Retrieved 14 September 2017.[permanent dead link]
  16. ^ "NBC Sports Group acquires exclusive US media rights to biggest events". World Rugby. Retrieved 22 May 2017.

External links[]

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