2021 Rugby World Cup

The 2021 Rugby World Cup is scheduled to be the ninth Rugby World Cup for women, to be held in New Zealand between 18 September and 16 October 2021 in the cities of Auckland and Whangarei. This will be the first women's Rugby World Cup to be held in the southern hemisphere. The eighth World Cup was played in 2017 in Dublin and Belfast, setting record attendances and viewership numbers.[1][2]

This article is about women's rugby union World Cup. For for men's rugby league World Cup, see 2021 Rugby League World Cup.
2021 Rugby World Cup
Tournament details
Host nation New Zealand
Dates18 September – 16 October
No. of nations12
Tournament statistics
Matches played30
← 2017
2025 →

In May 2018, it was announced that the format of the World Cup would be changing for the 2021 World Cup with classification matches being replaced with quarter finals.[3][4]

On 21 August 2019, World Rugby announced that gender designations would be removed from the title of the women's World Cup. All World Cup tournaments from 2021 forward, whether for men or women, will be officially called the "Rugby World Cup" with a year designation.[5]

Host selection

The schedule for World Rugby to select a host country is:

  1. 31 May 2018 — Unions formally confirm an expression of interest in bidding. Six unions confirmed their interest in bidding — four European nations (France, England, Wales, and Portugal); and two southern hemisphere nations (New Zealand and Australia).
  2. 10 August 2018 — Unions submit bids to World Rugby. Both Australia and New Zealand have publicly announced that they have submitted bids to host the tournament, which has never been held in the southern hemisphere.
  3. 14 November 2018 — World Rugby Council selects tournament host in Dublin.[6]

New Zealand will host the 2021 Rugby World Cup, as announced by World Rugby on 14 November 2018. It will be the first women's Rugby World Cup to be held in the southern hemisphere.

Qualifying
Main article: 2021 Rugby World Cup qualifying

New Zealand, the host nation, had already qualified automatically winning the 2017 tournament before being announced as hosts. A further six teams (England, France, United States, Canada, Australia and Wales) qualified automatically as top seven finishers at the 2017 tournament. The remaining qualifiers will be determined by the end of 2020.

Qualified teams
Africa Americas Asia Europe Oceania
Automatic Qualifiers
Regional Qualifiers
  • TBD (Asia 1)
  • TBD (Europe 1)
Cross-Regional
Repechage play-off [lower-alpha 1]
  •  Colombia (South America 1)
Repechage
tournament
  • TBD (Asia 2)
  • TBD (Europe 2)
  • TBD (Oceania 2)
Qualified team
  1. South America/Africa play-off: South America 1 will progress to a play-off with the second-placed team from Africa to determine the fourth team to compete in the Repechage. Repechage tournament: The final team to qualify for RWC 2021 will be decided via the new Repechage tournament, which will take place in 2020. The tournament will consist of the second placed teams in the Asia, Europe and Oceania regional tournaments and the winner of the play-off between South America and second-placed team from the Africa regional qualifier.

Broadcasting

Spark Sport will be the host broadcaster for the Rugby World Cup, broadcasting all matches live and on demand through its online streaming platform. TVNZ will broadcast a selection of games free-to-air on New Zealand television.

See also

References
  1. Brooke, Colin (2018). "Six countries in running for 2021 Women's RWC, including one you wouldn't expect". Rugby Pass. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  2. Philips, Sam (2018). "World Rugby announce 2021 WRWC bidders". Rugby.com. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  3. "Women's Rugby World Cup: Format changes announced for 2021 tournament". BBC Sport. 10 May 2018. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
  4. Orchard, Sara (2018). "Women's Rugby World Cup: Format changes announced for 2021 tournament". BBC. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  5. "World Rugby announces gender neutral naming for Rugby World Cup tournaments" (Press release). World Rugby. 21 August 2019. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
  6. World Rugby (2018). "Record hosting interest for Women's Rugby World Cup 2021". World Rugby. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  7. "Rugby Canada (Design, Hosting, Registration & Administration tools by esportsdeskpro.com)". www.rugbycanada.ca. Archived from the original on 12 October 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  8. "Rugby Canada (Design, Hosting, Registration & Administration tools by esportsdeskpro.com)". www.rugbycanada.ca. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  9. "France Télévisions and Eurosport to broadcast Women's Rugby World Cup". Women's Rugby World Cup. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  10. Daniel Kelly. "Ireland's Women's Rugby World Cup games to be broadcast on free-to-air television". newstalk.com. Archived from the original on 3 May 2017. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  11. "Teledeporte will broadcast Spain WRWC games, semifinals and the final".
  12. "ITV appointed UK rights holder for men's and women's Rugby World Cup events". World Rugby. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  13. "NBC Sports Group acquires exclusive US media rights to biggest events". World Rugby. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
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