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In Rugby World Cup news, Thursday is D-day. That is, RWC draw day.
For those who do not have a life, you can watch the draw on Rugby Pass TV, 5:00am AEDT on Thursday morning.
So will there be a pool of death? Obviously there will be, there always is.
The 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup in England is being held from 22 August 2025 to 27 September 2025. It entails 16 teams in four pools of four, up from 12 teams at the last World Cup.
Rugby is not football but it is still pretty global. There are teams from North America, South America, Asia, UK, Europe Africa and Oceania.
The completion of the WXV3 tournament confirmed Spain and Samoa having qualified. For Spain it is their debut and for Samoa their first return to a World Cup since 2014.
Brazil has also qualified for the first time, and in the biggest change in fortune Ireland who did not even qualify for the last World Cup, competed in the WXV3 tournament last year, this year qualified for the top-tier tournament WXV1 and defeated the Black Ferns. They are also back in the World Cup.
So, who is in?
• England
• Ireland
• Scotland
• Wales
• France
• Italy
• Spain
• South Africa
• Canada
• USA
• Brazil
• Japan
• New Zealand
• Australia
• Fiji
• Samoa
The top four teams in the World Rugby women’s rankings (as of 14 October) are placed into band 1 and pre-populated into the first position in each pool. The remaining 12 teams will be drawn into bands 2, 3 and 4 based on their rankings.
The bands are:
Band 1 – Seeds 1 to 4
Band 2 – Seeds 5 to 8
Band 3 – Seeds 9 to 12
Band 4 – Seeds 13 to 16
Band 1
England (1) Canada (2) New Zealand (3) France (4)
Band 2
Australia (5) Ireland (6) Scotland (7) Italy (8)
Band 3
United States (9) Wales (10) Japan (11) South Africa (12)
Band 4
Spain (13) Samoa (15) Fiji (17) Brazil (42)
So let the draw begin.
