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'Landmark moment': New global women's tournament unveiled
World Rugby has announced a new “landmark” global women’s tournament designed to accelerate the growth of the game. The world governing body is investing £6.4million in the WXV tournament, which will launch in 2023 and feed into the expanded 2025 Rugby World Cup.
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The competition will include 16 teams split into three tiers, with qualification based on regional tournaments including the Six Nations.
World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont said: “This is a landmark moment for the sport. Today’s announcement of a new global international 15s calendar will underpin the future success and accelerate the development of the women’s game.”
The tournament will be played every year with the exception of World Cup years, with a window between September and November in the calendar. Tuesday’s announcement comes a week after the 2021 World Cup was pushed back to 2022 due to delays in the qualification process as a result of the pandemic.
From 2025, the World Cup will expand from 12 teams to 16, with this new competition intended to provide more Test rugby to aid development. “By establishing a unified international 15s calendar and introducing WXV we are creating a platform for the women’s international teams to compete in more consistent, competitive and sustainable competitions at regional and global level,” Beaumont added.
"For the first time in rugby's history, a new, revolutionary women's 15s calendar"
This is WXV! ? pic.twitter.com/vGGeZmX4s9
— World Rugby (@WorldRugby) March 16, 2021
The top three teams from the 2023 Six Nations will go into the first division of the new tournament, where they will face three nations drawn from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States (Oceania/RAN).
The second tier will include two European nations, the fourth-placed team from Oceania/RAN, plus one team from each of Oceania, Asia, and Africa, with a four-team third tier formed of two European teams, one team from Asia and the winner of an Africa v South America play-off.
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Each tier will play a tournament in a single venue, with the top two tiers using a cross-pool format and the third tier using a round-robin format. There will be promotion and relegation of regional positions between the tiers based on results, although there will be no promotion or relegation involving the top tier for the first year of the competition.
World Rugby hopes the new competition will not only boost opportunities for Test-level rugby but also grow interest and investment into the women’s game to help its future development. With the announcement coming so soon after the postponement of this year’s World Cup, general manager of women’s rugby Katie Sadleir said it showed investment in the game was continuing.
“Cash is tight everywhere, but I can honestly say we’re investing more money in women’s rugby than ever before,” Sadleir said. “It’s the area we have not cut and we have urged unions to do the same… Covid has hurt us but we have ambitious plans and we’re still putting our foot down.”
‘The reality of a women’s Lions tour is bogged down in the same issues we have been discussing for years’
– @_JessHayden ??? on what a Women's @lionsofficial tour might look like in practice #lions https://t.co/CTrBve13bb
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 15, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
A distinct discomfort with the officiating they were probably selected from the local IRA narcos branch along with the commentators bloody fly tippers.
1 Go to commentsWow, never thought I would read that
1 Go to commentsExcellent match. Great to see Keenan and Ryan back for Leinster. Super result for Ulster. Season is turning around.
1 Go to comments“We need eight or nine new players, who are hard-wearing and durable and experienced Premiership performers”. So why are they scouting a retired fullback who himself admits that his “body is broken”?
1 Go to commentsBrumbies hand, knocked a Crusaders hand. Therefore, knock on in goal. Crusaders, goal line drop out should’ve been awarded. most likely after that 24 each at full time, so extra time would’ve been the right an entertaining outcome. Act Jim
1 Go to commentsSpeell cehck
1 Go to commentsColeman is gaawwwwnnn.
1 Go to commentsnext SA head coach?
3 Go to commentsGreat try by van Poortvliet.
1 Go to commentsThey have been cruelled by injuries but almost nobody (Sevu Reece and Fletcher Newell big exceptions) has played above himself which regularly happened before. Surely Scott Robertson had maintained the recruitment programme and it looks like a reasonable squad. Last in this competition will stall a lot of careers. Penny seems likeable. But it’s not enough even though this was better. We haven’t been good enough and it’s not helped by the “it’s been 15 years since… “etc “after nearly every match. Seems somehow a soft gifting of something once valuable. Kieran Read giving comments last week almost choked describing the easy surrender of possession by the forwards. I’d love to think that the senior players some of whom are back can show enough pride in the jersey to test the Blues next week.
3 Go to commentsWho will Joe select for the back three with so many in form candidates? Just hope he doesn’t get shafted like Dave Rennie and to a lesser extent Deans.
6 Go to commentsAlways reluctant to blame a coach when losses rack up, but Penney must go. The backline is dysfunctional and the coach must carry the can. No cohesion, no idea and in many cases, minimal skill. The trains out of Roma St depart faster than the ball from Crusaders’ set pieces. Wouldn’t be surprised if the forwards went on strike.
3 Go to commentsAdding to earlier comment. Cullen Grace has been playing great at no6. Lio-Willie , who was on fire a few weeks ago, had a bad game. I think Cullen should have been moved to 8 earlier, Dominic Gardiner on earlier. Feel for Quinten Strange , put in a big shift .
6 Go to commentsWe dominated the scrums Ben Curry was all over pitch again .Surely James Harper got to be one of best English tightheads
1 Go to commentsRoos is a better option at 6 than 8 for the boks. Needs to work on his windgat though.
1 Go to commentsThe Sharks’ 2nd team maybe?
1 Go to comments‘radical’
1 Go to commentsCome back to Christchurch Robbie, please!
1 Go to commentsI think there is zero chance Sam Cane will be selected for another Test. There is simply no point except sentimentality. Razor is not sentimental- ask Wyatt Crocket. Razor is a ruthless selector
5 Go to comments> It would be best described as an elegant solution to what was potentially going to be a significant problem for new All Blacks coach Scott Robertson. It is a problem the mad population of New Zealand will have to cope with more and more as All Blacks are able to continue their careers in NZ post RWCs. It will not be a problem for coaches, who are always going to start a campaign with the captain for the next WC in mind. > Cane, despite his warrior spirit, his undoubted commitment to every team he played for and unforgettable heroics against Ireland in last year’s World Cup quarter-final, was never unanimously admired or respected within New Zealand while he was in the role. Neither was McCaw, he was considered far too passive a captain and then out of form until his last world cup where everyone opinions changed, just like they would have if Cane had won the WC. > It was never easy to see where Cane, or even if, he would fit into Robertson’s squad given the new coach will want to be building a new-look team with 2027 in mind. > Cane will win his selections on merit and come the end of the year, he’ll sign off, he hopes, with 100 caps and maybe even, at last, universal public appreciation for what was a special career. No, he won’t. Those returning from Japan have already earned the right to retain their jersey, it’s in their contract. Cane would have been playing against England if he was ready, and found it very hard to keep his place. Perform, and they keep it however. Very easy to see where Cane could have fit, very hard to see how he could have accomplished it choosing this year as his sabbatical instead of 2025, and that’s how it played out (though I assume we now know what when NZR said they were allowing him to move his sabbatical forward and return to NZ next year, they had actually agreed to simply select him for the All Blacks from overseas, without any chance he was going to play in NZ again). With a mammoth season of 15 All Black games they might as well get some value out of his years contract, though even with him being of equal character to Richie, I don’t think they should guarantee him his 100 caps. That’s not what the All Blacks should be about. He absolutely has to play winning football.
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