Twickenham to Host Women’s Rugby World Cup Final in 2025

The final of the Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2025 will be staged at Twickenham, setting up the opportunity for a world-record crowd for a women’s international.

World Rugby made the announcement on Monday. The record attendance for a women’s rugby international is 58,498 spectators for England’s victory over France at Twickenham this year.

“Women’s Rugby World Cup England 2025 will be a generational moment for rugby,” World Rugby Chairman Sir Bill Beaumont said. “The biggest, most accessible and most widely-viewed, its unstoppable momentum will reach, engage and inspire new audiences in ways that rugby events have not done before.”

The Stadium of Light, home of English soccer club Sunderland, will host the opening game of the tournament on August 22 that will feature England.

“We’ve been working in collaboration with our cities and venues teams to engage with the local communities and maximise opportunities to give them an unforgettable and inclusive fan experience,” said Sarah Massey, managing director for the Women’s Rugby World Cup. “This is the era of women’s sport and women’s rugby will make its biggest, boldest statement in 2025. With tickets going on sale next year, our message to rugby, sport and major event fans is mark your diaries now for the event of 2025. It will be massive.”

Eight stadiums will be used for the 16-team tournament, which concludes on September 27. Along with Twickenham and the Stadium of Light will be Ashton Gate in Bristol, Brighton & Hove Albion Stadium, Franklin’s Gardens in Northampton, Sandy Park in Exeter, Salford Community Stadium and York Community Stadium.

Canada, England, France and New Zealand have already qualified for Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 after finishing in the top four at RWC 2021, with the remaining positions to be filled in 2024.

“Both the Stadium of Light and Twickenham Stadium, as hosts of the opening and closing matches, along with the other six tournament venues evidences the RFU’s tournament goal of boosting development of the sport right around the country and achieving our ambition to have 100,000 female players by 2027,” said Steve Grainer, RFU executive director of rugby development. “To drive forward this work we are delighted to be working closely with Sport England, the UK Government and other organisations to create a transformational legacy programme. We are very grateful to Government for committing funding to this transformational tournament.”