What to look forward to in 2026 for women's rugby

With the excitement of 2025 now over, and a historic Women’s Rugby World Cup in the rear view mirror, we can now cast our eyes to the future, and what’s in store for us rugby fans in the year ahead.

Excitedly many unions have announced an increased number of international fixtures this year, including historic tours and the first initiation of the WXV Global Series, with further fixtures due to be confirmed in the coming weeks.

Domestically, in England, the PWR takes a well-earned break until round 9 kicks off on Friday 30th January when Trailfinders take on Harlequins (their women’s team currently faring far better in the league than their male counterparts). The most intriguing match of that weekend sees fellow strugglers Sale Sharks and Bristol Bears play each other, both teams currently with one win from seven (Sale also with a draw), and both desperately needing a shot in the arm to reignite their seasons.

Fixture

PWR

Bristol Bears Women

30 - 29

Full-time

Sale Sharks Women

All Stats and Data

The PWR final will be one to mark in your calendar on Sunday 28th June at the Twickenham Stoop, as Gloucester-Hartpury (currently undefeated and top of the table) continue to chase a fourth straight title. Can any side stop them?

In France’s AXA Elite 1 competition the 10 competing teams are now on a break until the end of January with 11 rounds to go until the winners are crowned. Currently Toulouse and Romagnat lead the way.

The Celtic Challenge, consisting of two Irish, Welsh and Scottish sides, got under way at the tail end of 2025 with round 2 now completed. Last weekend saw the most recent round of action as the Irish derby resulted in the Wolfhounds walking away victorious against the Clovers.

The remainder of the competition’s regular season will run until 7th March with the tournament taking a one-week break before the semi-finals and final take place at the end of that month to lead us nicely up to the Six Nations.

The Guinness Women’s Six Nations kicks off on Saturday 11th April when we have three tasty match ups on the opening weekend: France kick off this year’s competition against Italy, in what will be their first outing under new head coach François Ratier, Les Bleues will be hoping to revive their international reputation after they finished fourth at last year’s World Cup.

Italy will be wanting to do the exact same after not making it through to the knock-out stages after defeat to South Africa in the pools.

World champions England will play Ireland as the Red Roses will hope to continue their ridiculous winning streak, currently the longest ever in rugby, consisting of 33 consecutive games.

Whilst Wales and Scotland will once again lock horns as they did in their World Cup opener. An intriguing prospect will be new Scotland head coach Sione Fukofuka taking on Sean Lynn’s side, with Wales’ head coach in post for almost a year now, can Scotland once again walk away with the bragging rights in what has historically been an incredibly tight fixture?

The final match of the Championship is between Les Bleues and the Red Roses in France on Sunday 17th May- another date for the diary. France haven’t beaten England since 2018 and will be desperate to do so in front of a raucous home crowd.

In the other international tournament in the northern hemisphere, at the end of March, the Women’s Rugby Europe Championship will take place as a round-robin competition with Belgium participating in place of Sweden. The four competing countries consist of multiple-time champions Spain, the aforementioned Belgium, alongside the Netherlands and Portugal.

On the other side of the globe, the Pacific Four Series is set to kick off in April with Australia confirming they will play Canada and the USA Eagles in the USA on 11th and 17th April respectively.

New Zealand, Canada, the USA and Australia will each play three Tests in the series including the Black Ferns and Wallaroos Pac Four clash doubling up as the first of two O’Reilly Cup matches between the sides.

Australia’s Super Rugby Women’s competition starts up in June, as does Super Rugby Aupiki in the land of the long white cloud with both tournaments getting going slightly later in the year. This will lead up to a Super Rugby Champions Final against the Super Rugby and Super Rugby Aupiki winners.

The NSW Waratahs won Super Rugby W last year, whereas in Aupiki, can anyone stop the Blues chasing a third straight title?

Then an exciting international calendar continues with the Black Ferns announcing they will play their first ever full Test on South African soil as part of the “Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry” tour, meeting the Springboks Women in Johannesburg on 5th September.

South Africa have announced exciting news of their own with a new Women’s Super League set to launch half way through the year. In addition to this, SA Rugby intends to centrally contract up to 150 players for this league, creating an unprecedented professional platform for women’s rugby in the country.

As the autumn approaches the new-look WXV Global Series is set to get underway with various unions announcing fixtures and tours.

Many are still yet to be confirmed but as it stands Australia have said they will head to the northern hemisphere to play three Tests in September with opponents, venues and dates still to be confirmed.

The Black Ferns and France have announced France will head to New Zealand to take part in a three Test series across October, and then separate to the WXV Global Series, Scotland will head to Australia to see out the year playing two Tests in what will be the Scots’ first ever tour of the country.

Further Tests will be confirmed as we move further into the year so keep an eye out for announcements from various unions.