World Cup fever gripped the nation as the Black Ferns captured the World Cup on home soil last year. New Zealand Rugby hopes to replicate similar scenes when it hosts the world’s premier international women’s rugby teams in October.
In a significant coup for the profile of women’s rugby, New Zealand will host the inaugural WXV tournament from October 21 to November 4 after securing government and local body investment support.
The event will pit England, France and Wales – the top three teams from the northern hemisphere – against the three leading southern rivals who must first qualify through the Pacific Four tournament in Canada in July.
Allan Bunting’s Black Ferns, should they progress through the Pacific Four as expected, will then square off in rematches of last year’s gripping World Cup semi and finale against France and England.
While venues are yet to be unveiled, unlike the World Cup which was staged exclusively in Auckland and Northland, WXV will be shared across the country with Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch to host matches.
Last November Eden Park hosted a world record 42,579 women’s rugby crowd as the Black Ferns defeated England in the tense World Cup final. England and France trumped that attendance last week when 58,498 flocked to Twickenham for their final Six Nations match to signal continued growth at the elite level.
“We think there’s going to be massive interest in the tournament so we’ll choose venues that will cater to that,” NZ Rugby general manager of professional rugby Chris Lendrum said. “We’ve set a high bar for ourselves last year but that shows the interest in the women’s game and our players. The style of rugby is critical to that. The women’s game is fast, open, unpredictable. There’s big ebbs and flows. I’d expect big crowds.”
In a bid to capitalise on World Cup momentum the Black Ferns will play four of their seven tests at home this year. The WXV tournament will feature one Friday night match followed by Saturday double-headers at the same venue spread across three weekends.
“We’ve been saying for a while we’re committed to the growth of the women’s profile and the Black Ferns programme,” Lendrum said. “To have another opportunity to bring the likes of England and France down to New Zealand and see some of the rugby we saw last year again is tremendously exciting.
“International women’s rugby at the moment is quite tournament-based. If you don’t host one of those tournaments there is a risk as to how much rugby you have in front of your home audience. For us this is too good an opportunity to pass up on the back of last year.”
The WXV tournament will run simultaneously with the men’s World Cup in France – a schedule determined by World Rugby – but Lendrum is confident the competing clash won’t compromise interest or attendance in New Zealand.
The All Blacks play two home tests against the Springboks at Mt Smart Stadium and the Wallabies in Dunedin before their World Cup starts in September.
“We don’t have a lot of elite international rugby in New Zealand this year. The brands of rugby played between the men’s and women’s are different. The whole product is different. What we saw with the home World Cup last year is a huge number of New Zealanders who don’t usually engage with rugby or attend fixtures came along. This is an opportunity to grow engagement with the game and having both those tournaments going, what a time that’ll be for rugby.”
NZ Rugby’s push to further showcase the Black Ferns extends to a pitch to host the ground-breaking women’s British and Irish Lions tour in 2027.
“We think we’ve got a strong, compelling bid to put forward for the Lions. There would be no better place for them to come for their historic first tour than New Zealand, especially off the back of the World Cup. We’re just waiting and hope to hear soon.”
At this stage, though, no decisions have been made regarding Super Rugby Aupiki’s expected expansion from this year’s five-week season, or whether next year will include cross-over fixtures with Australia’s six teams.
“We’re working on that as we speak. We know we need to make some confirmations around the future of that competition pretty quickly. Is it right to expand it, lengthen it? Is there a role for engagement with Super W? Hopefully in the next month or so we might be able to provide a bit more information.”
