Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025: When and where is it taking place?

Bristol’s Ashton Gate will host the semi-finals of next year’s Women’s 2025 Rugby World Cup, tickets for which will go on sale in September.

Organisers are expecting an unprecedented demand for England’s opening match at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland on Aug 22 as well as the final at Twickenham on Sep 27. Tickets for both matches will be available to buy from Sep 24 for fans who are registered on the tournament’s official website.

Fans will be able to snap up child tickets for England’s tournament opener for as little as £5, while a family of four will pay £30 to watch the Red Roses open their World Cup campaign in the north east.

Top tickets for the final at Twickenham, which the Rugby Football Union is hoping to sell out, will be priced at £95, with lower-priced options available for adults starting at £30. The bronze-medal match will also be staged on the same day as the final, acting as a curtain raiser to women’s rugby’s blue-riband event.

Next year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup is already being billed as a ‘generational moment’ for the sport and there are hopes the tournament can spark similar levels of interest to the Lionesses’ transformational 2022 Euros win.

Organisers believe premium tickets for the final at the home of English rugby are justified given the growing profile of the female game and have been bench marked across multiple women’s sports. By comparison, tickets for England Women’s triumph at football’s European Championship in 2022 ranged from £5 to £50.

“We’ve got a huge range of prices and the slightly more expensive ticket also enables us to be able to have accessible pricing and engage families across the board,” said Paul Lemon, director of ticketing at World Rugby.

Which teams have already qualified for the 2025 Women’s World Cup?

South Africa, Japan, England, Ireland, Canada, France, New Zealand, Fiji and USA have all qualified for the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025.

WXV, the global competition which launched in October, along with other regional competitions will act as qualifying events for the remaining positions. A total of 16 teams will take part in the tournament – an increase from the 12 nations that took part in last year’s World Cup in New Zealand.

Which cities are hosting the tournament?

Eight cities across England will stage the tournament. In a measure of the Rugby Football Union’s ambition to spread the game around the country, York, Manchester, Bristol, Exeter and Northampton will all host matches.

Four of the venues are already home to English rugby teams, including Bristol Bears at Ashton Gate, Northampton Saints’ Franklin’s Gardens, Exeter Chiefs’ Sandy Park and Sale Sharks at the Salford Community Stadium (commonly known as AJ Bell Stadium).

After opening their World Cup campaign in Sunderland, the Red Roses will play their remaining two pool matches Northampton and Brighton.

Ashton Gate will share the quarter-finals with Exeter’s Sandy Park, which hosted the Premiership Women’s Rugby final last week.

When can I watch the Red Roses next?

England will next play against France at Kingsholm on Sep 7. The following week John Mitchell’s side faces New Zealand at Twickenham.