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BBC’s The One Show to host Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 draw
The Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 draw will be made live on the BBC’s The One Show next Thursday, October 17th.
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World Cup winner Maggie Alphonsi will join BBC Sport’s Gabby Logan and a presenter from the primetime chat show to conduct the draw, which will take place at 19:20 (GMT+1) and be streamed globally via RugbyPass TV.
World Rugby also announced that the match schedule will be released on October 22nd. It has already been confirmed that England will play the opening match in Sunderland and their remaining two pool matches in Northampton and Brighton.
Demand for tickets for the expanded 16-team tournament has so far exceeded supply, with more than 60,000 snapped up for the opening match at the Stadium of Light and finals day at Twickenham during the initial sales window last month.
This weekend is a pivotal one on the road to the World Cup, which organisers say will be the largest sporting event staged in England in 2025, as the full line-up will be decided following the final round of WXV 2024.
Hosts England and reigning champions New Zealand are among the 10 teams that have already made sure of their place at the showpiece tournament. They will be joined by Canada, France, Brazil, Ireland, South Africa, Japan, USA and Fiji.
The four non-qualified teams currently playing in WXV 2 – Australia, Italy, Scotland and Wales – are guaranteed to secure their passage to the World Cup at the completion of their matches in Cape Town.
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That leaves Spain, Samoa, Hong Kong China and the Netherlands competing for the remaining two tickets in the United Arab Emirates this Friday and Saturday.
Commenting on the announcement, Sarah Massey, Managing Director of Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025, said: “This is a significant milestone as fans will be able to plan their Women’s Rugby World Cup England 2025 experience.
“With over 60,000 tickets already sold, the demand and enthusiasm across the country is clear. We look forward to announcing the match schedule and expect high demand across the tournament and all around the country.”
Editor of The One Show, Joanne Vaughan Jones, added: “We’re excited that the Women’s Rugby World Cup will be coming to England, it’s a big moment for women’s sport across the whole of the UK and we’re delighted to be teaming up with BBC Sport to bring One Show viewers right to the heart of these very special announcements.”
How will the draw work?
The 16 qualified teams will be given a seeding and placed into four bands depending on their position in the World Rugby Women’s Rankings on Monday, October 14th.
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The top four teams will be placed into band one, the second four teams into band two and so on.
One team from each band will be drawn into each of the four pools so that each pool contains one team from band one, one team from band two, one team from band three and one team from band four.
How can you buy tickets for Women’s RWC 2025?
All fans will have the opportunity to apply for tickets for all matches from 11:00 (GMT +1) on Tuesday, November 5th until 11:00 (GMT+1) on Tuesday, November 19th. Ballots will be used for any price categories which are oversubscribed.
Prior to the two-week ticket application phase, Mastercard is offering its cardholders access to a 48-hour priority sale for all matches from 11:00 (GMT +1) on Tuesday, October 22nd until 11:00 (GMT+1) on Thursday, October 24th.
Only Mastercard debit and credit cards will be accepted during this priority window.
Fans can register their interest for tickets to Women’s RWC 2025 here.
Draw one year before RWC, seedings taken 3 days before the draw.
This is proper and will reflect as much as possible current form teams to establish fair and even pools.
Compare with Mens draw:
2023: Draw three years before using rankings from 4 years before (at end of RWC 2027)
2027: Draw 1 year 10 months before but no transparency on when the rankings will be taken from. (Scotland beware!)
I agree, but why does the draw have to take place now, the football world cup draw is normally done 7 months or so before the tournament and there are many more teams.
I have decided not to buy "tickets" for the final at Twickenham as you could only buy them according to price band with no information where they would be situated in the ground. I could guess but the level at which they are (high, middle, low) is really important to know. Without knowing which seats my family and I would be sat in, we decided that we would not pay a large amount of money for 7 tickets, disappointing my rugby playing granddaughter. A rude shock after being able to select really good seats for the BFs match in September. In my opinion a marketing disaster. Perhaps there is a reason for this but if there is, I am obviously not clever enough to understand.
Brazil is ranked 42nd in the world, the Netherlands 17th. In my opinion it is totally wrong that Brazil get a place in the RWC before the Netherlands, surely you should have the best sides there. In both football and rugby teams from Europe are penalised as there are insufficient places allocated to the region in which the best teams tend to be located. The top tier team that gets Brazil in their group will be well situated to be the No 1 seed after the pool matches by their likely superior points difference.
But the group match ups for potential Quarters, Semis and final will be set in stone at the draw so seeding after the pools don't matter: eg QF1 Winner Pool 1 V Runner Up Pool 2 (seedings after the pool won't change the teams in that hypothetical QF)