On Sunday, the Red Roses will be kicking off the defence of their WXV1 title that they won the inaugural edition of in 2023. Last year, the top tier of the WXV competition took place in New Zealand. This year the competition visits Canada. England will face the other top teams in the world. Their opponents are: New Zealand, Canada, USA, Ireland and France. These will be exciting games but what exactly is the structure of the competition?
The idea behind the WXV tournament was to give 18 unions competitive rugby fixtures in the build up to the 2025 World Cup which will be held in England next year. This seems to have worked, and women's rugby has seen more investment. The most high profile investment was a $4 million donation by Michelle Kang to the USA women's 7s team which was separate from this set up but good for the game regardless. However, there have also been signs of progress with Ireland announcing 37 central contracts for female players across the 15s and 7s set ups and a significant improvement for South Africa. It has been suggested that the format will be tweaked after the 2025 World Cup as Women's rugby grows in popularity.
The structure of the tournament is 3 divisions of 6 teams. Each division plays all games in one country. The 2025 edition will see WXV1 games played in Canada, WXV2 games played in South Africa and WXV3 games played in Dubai. The top tier is made up of the top 3 teams from the Women's Six Nations( England, Ireland, France) and the top 3 from the Pacific Four Series( New Zealand, Canada, Usa). WXV2 is made up of 4th from the Pacific Four Series( Australia), 4th to 6th from the Six Nations( Wales, Scotland, Italy) and the winners of the Asian and African qualifying( Japan and South Africa). 6th place from the Six Nations plays the champions of Rugby Europe Championship for a place in WXV2 but in this case the Six Nations side qualified. Each side plays 3 games in the group and the winner is decided by points. England's opponents are USA, New Zealand and Canada.
England will kick off their campaign at 8:30pm UK time on Sunday evening against the USA. The game will be played in Vancouver, Canada but UK viewers can watch the game on BBC Iplayer.
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