Jump to navigation Jump to search Not to be confused with Women’s Wales v russia women’s football highlights League World Cup. The Women’s Rugby World Cup is the premier international competition in rugby union for women. The tournament is organised by the sport’s governing body, World Rugby.
The first Women’s Rugby World Cup was held in 1991 and won by the United States. Prior to the first Women’s Rugby World Cup officially sanctioned by the International Rugby Board there had been three previous tournaments of a similar nature. The first of these was an event held in August 1990 in New Zealand. Though not considered a world cup, the tournament was referred to as the World Rugby Festival for Women.
The first tournament referred to as the Women’s Rugby World Cup was held in 1991 and hosted by Wales. Twelve countries were divided into four groups of three. The next event was originally scheduled to take place in Amsterdam but ended up being moved to Scotland. Eleven countries competed in the tournament with the English meeting the United States in the final for the second time however, in this instance England emerged as winners. The 1998 tournament became the first women’s world cup officially sanctioned by the International Rugby Board. Amsterdam, who were originally scheduled to host the previous world cup, hosted the largest ever tournament with all matches played at the new National Rugby Centre in the city’s west end. The next event was taken to Spain in 2002.
The 2006 World Cup took place in Edmonton, Canada, and was the first major international rugby union tournament and women’s world cup held in North America. New Zealand defeated England in the final to win their third successive world cup title. A record four countries expressed interest in hosting the 2010 World Cup. The 2017 World Cup was hosted by the Irish Rugby Football Union, which governs the sport on an All-Ireland basis. Games were held in Dublin in the Republic of Ireland and in Belfast in Northern Ireland. For the 2021 edition, New Zealand, will host the next Women’s Rugby World Cup. The format for the 2006 tournament split the 12 participating nations into four pools of three teams.
Each nation played three games, after the completion of which a re-seeding process took place. Nations were moved into divisions dictated by their respective overall tournament ranking with the top teams proceeding to the knockout stages. The 2010 event maintained the number of teams participating at twelve, with regional qualifying tournaments. In previous tournaments teams were selected by the IRB based on international performances as opposed to qualification via regional tournaments.