2021 Rugby World Cup

The 2021 Rugby World Cup was the ninth staging of the women's Rugby World Cup, as organised by World Rugby. It was held from 8 October to 12 November 2022 in Auckland and Whangārei, New Zealand. It was originally scheduled to be held in 2021, but was postponed by one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This article is about rugby union. For rugby league, see 2021 Rugby League World Cup and 2021 Women's Rugby League World Cup.

2021 Rugby World Cup
Tournament details
Host nation New Zealand
Dates8 October – 12 November 2022
No. of nations12
Final positions
Champions  New Zealand
Runner-up  England
Third place  France
Tournament statistics
Matches played26
Top scorer(s)England Emily Scarratt (44)
Most triesNew Zealand Portia Woodman (7)
← 2017
2025 →

It was the first women's Rugby World Cup to be hosted by New Zealand, and by a country in the Southern Hemisphere. New Zealand were also the defending champions.

The tournament introduced changes such as replacement of classification play-offs in the knockout stage with quarter-finals,[1][2] and a longer scheduling window with at least five days between matches.[3] It was also the first to not be marketed by World Rugby as the "Women's Rugby World Cup", due to a decision to market both the men's and women's tournaments under the "Rugby World Cup" title with no disambiguation beginning in 2021.

Host selection

On 14 November 2018, World Rugby announced that New Zealand would host the 2021 Women's Rugby World Cup, beating out a competing bid by Australia—the only other country to officially submit a bid for the tournament. It was the first Women's Rugby World Cup to be hosted by a country in the Southern Hemisphere.[4]

In November 2019, World Rugby announced that in an effort to create greater parity between the men's and women's Rugby World Cup, the Women's Rugby World Cup would be marketed as the "Rugby World Cup" with no gender designation beginning with the 2021 tournament.[5]

The tournament was originally scheduled to be held from 18 September to 16 October 2021. On 2 March 2021, World Rugby announced that the tournament would be postponed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as "it has become clear in recent discussions with key partners including New Zealand Rugby, the New Zealand government and participating unions, that, given the scale of the event and the COVID-19 related uncertainties, it is just not possible to deliver the environment for all teams to be the best that they can be on the sport's greatest stage." New Zealand's Zero-COVID policy at the time also meant that teams would have been subject to strict quarantine arrangements in order to enter the country, whose international borders were closed.[6] The rescheduling also upholds the current practice of holding the women's Rugby World Cup in the year that follows the Summer Olympics,[7] as the 2020 Summer Olympics were also postponed by one year to 2021 due to COVID-19.[8]

On 12 May 2021, it was announced that the tournament had been rescheduled to 8 October through 12 November 2022; the window of the tournament was also extended and realigned to allow for at least five days rest between matches, as with the men's Rugby World Cup. All matches were scheduled on weekends.[3] The tournament remained branded as the "2021 Rugby World Cup", but with a "Playing in 2022" subtitle.[3]

Venues
Locations of the 2021 Rugby World Cup
Auckland Whangārei Auckland
Eden Park Northland Events Centre Waitakere Stadium
Capacity: 60,000 Capacity: 30,000 Capacity: 4,901

The three venues are in the Auckland and Northland regions of Te Ika-a-Māui, the North Island. Three opening games were hosted at New Zealand's national stadium Eden Park. Eden Park also hosted the semi-finals, third place play-off and final. Other pool games and the quarter-finals were held at the Northland Events Centre and Waitakere Stadium.

Qualifying
Main article: 2021 Rugby World Cup qualifying
Qualification status:
  Qualified for the 2021 Rugby World Cup.
  Failed to qualify.
  Withdrew or suspended.

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. Scotland was announced as the winner of the repechage tournament on 25 February 2022.

Qualified teams
Africa Americas Asia Europe Oceania
Automatic Qualifiers
Regional Qualifiers
Cross-Regional
Repechage play-off [lower-alpha 1]
Repechage
tournament
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.
  2. Samoa withdrew from the Repechage tournament due to COVID-19 related restrictions.
Qualified teams
Region Team Qualification
method		 Previous
apps		 Previous best result World Rugby
Ranking
Africa  South Africa 2019 Rugby Africa Women's Cup winners 3 Tenth place (2010, 2014) 13
Asia  Japan 2021 Asia Rugby Women's Championship winners
(by World Rankings)		 4 Eighth place (1994) 12
Europe  England Top 7 in 2017 8 Champions (1994, 2014) 1
 France Top 7 in 2017 8 Third place (1991, 1994, 2002, 2006, 2014, 2017) 3
 Italy European Qualification tournament winners 4 Plate semi-finals (Seventh/Eighth place) (1991) 8
 Wales Top 7 in 2017 6 Fourth place (1994) 11
 Scotland Final Qualification Tournament winners 5 Fifth place (1994) 9
North America  Canada Top 7 in 2017 8 Runners-up (2014) 4
 United States Top 7 in 2017 8 Champions (1991) 6
Oceania  Australia Top 7 in 2017 6 Third place (2010) 5
 Fiji Oceania play-off winners 0 N/A 21
 New Zealand Top 7 in 2017/Hosts 7 Champions (1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2017) 2

Match officials

On 26 May 2022, World Rugby announced the team of 18 officials from 11 unions for the World Cup, including an "all-female team of referees." English official Sara Cox served in her fourth World Cup, while South African official Aimee Barrett-Theron and Irish official Joy Neville adjudicates in their second World Cups.[9]

On 21 September 2022, World Rugby released the list of appointments for the pool phase—New Zealander Maggie Cogger-Orr was selected to oversee the opening match of the tournament.[10]

On 8 November 2022, World Rugby announced that Scottish referee Hollie Davidson would adjudicate the final.[11]

Referees (9)

Assistants (5)

Television Match Officials (4)

Draw

Seedings for the pools of the 2021 World Cup were based on the teams' World Rugby Rankings. The draw, hosted by sports pundit and former English and British and Irish Lions international Ugo Monye and sports journalist and presenter Elma Smit, was conducted on 20 November 2020 in the SkyCity Theatre in Auckland, and used the World Rankings as of 1 January 2020, before the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the first case in which the Women's World Cup was drawn based on World Rankings instead of classification from the previous World Cup.[12][13] The automatic qualifiers from 2017 were allocated to their respective bands based on their rankings – and the remaining 5 qualifying places were allocated to Bands 3 and 4 based on previous World Cup playing strength:

  • Band 1, made up of the top 3 automatic qualifiers, (1–3)
  • Band 2, made up of the next 3 automatic qualifiers, (4–6)
  • Band 3, made up of the 7th automatic qualifier, Europe 1 and Africa 1
  • Band 4, made up of Asia 1, Oceania 1 and Repechage winner

This meant the 12 teams, qualified and qualifiers, were seeded thus:

Band 1 Band 2 Band 3 Band 4

The pools were respectively drawn by New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, former Black Ferns internationals, Melodie Robinson and Farah Palmer and former All Blacks international, Dan Carter.

Squads
See also: 2021 Rugby World Cup squads

Each team submitted a squad of 32 players for the tournament.

Pool stage
See also: 2021 Rugby World Cup warm-up matches

Each pool was a single round-robin of six games, in which each team played one match against each of the other teams in the same pool. Teams were awarded four points for a win, two points for a draw. A team that scored four or more tries earned a bonus point, as did a team that lost by fewer than eight points.

The tournament comprised twelve teams divided into three pools of four teams. The top two teams in each pool, as well as the best two third-placed teams progressed to the quarter-finals.

Fixtures were announced on 28 January 2021.

Tie-breaking criteria

If two or more teams are tied on match points, the following tiebreakers applied;

  1. The winner of the match between the two teams
  2. Difference between points scored for and points scored against in all pool matches
  3. Difference between tries scored for and tries scored against in all pool matches
  4. Points scored in all pool matches
  5. Most tries scored in all pool matches
Key to colours in pool tables
Advanced to the quarter-finals as one of the top two teams in a pool
Advanced to the quarter-finals as one of the two best third place teams

Pld = Number of games played; W = Number of games won; D = Number of games drawn; L = Number of games lost; TF = Number of tries scored (tries for); PF = Total number of points scored by the team (points for); PA = Total number of points scored against the team (points against); +/− = Points difference, PF−PA; BP = Bonus pool points; Pts = Total number of pool points

Pool A
Main article: 2021 Rugby World Cup Pool A
Pos Team Pld W D L PF PA PD T B Pts
1  New Zealand 3 3 0 0 154 29 +125 26 3 15
2  Australia 3 2 0 1 44 60 −16 6 0 8
3  Wales 3 1 0 2 37 84 −47 5 1 5
4  Scotland 3 0 0 3 27 89 −62 5 2 2
Source:
8 October 2022Australia 17–41 New ZealandEden Park, Auckland
9 October 2022Wales 18–15 ScotlandNorthland Events Centre, Whangārei
15 October 2022Scotland 12–14 AustraliaNorthland Events Centre, Whangārei
16 October 2022Wales 12–56 New ZealandWaitakere Stadium, Auckland
22 October 2022Australia 13–7 WalesNorthland Events Centre, Whangārei
22 October 2022New Zealand 57–0 ScotlandNorthland Events Centre, Whangārei

Pool B
Main article: 2021 Rugby World Cup Pool B
Pos Team Pld W D L PF PA PD T B Pts
1  Canada 3 3 0 0 92 31 +61 16 3 15
2  Italy 3 2 0 1 55 40 +15 8 1 9
3  United States 3 1 0 2 54 68 −14 8 1 5
4  Japan 3 0 0 3 30 92 −62 5 0 0
Source:
9 October 2022United States 10–22 ItalyNorthland Events Centre, Whangārei
9 October 2022Japan 5–41 CanadaNorthland Events Centre, Whangārei
15 October 2022United States 30–17 JapanNorthland Events Centre, Whangārei
16 October 2022Italy 12–22 CanadaWaitakere Stadium, Auckland
23 October 2022Japan 8–21 ItalyWaitakere Stadium, Auckland
23 October 2022Canada 29–14 United StatesWaitakere Stadium, Auckland

Pool C
Main article: 2021 Rugby World Cup Pool C
Pos Team Pld W D L PF PA PD T B Pts
1  England 3 3 0 0 172 26 +146 28 2 14
2  France 3 2 0 1 91 18 +73 14 3 11
3  Fiji 3 1 0 2 40 145 −105 6 0 4
4  South Africa 3 0 0 3 22 136 −114 3 1 1
Source:
8 October 2022South Africa 5–40 FranceEden Park, Auckland
8 October 2022Fiji 19–84 EnglandEden Park, Auckland
15 October 2022France 7–13 EnglandNorthland Events Centre, Whangārei
16 October 2022Fiji 21–17 South AfricaWaitakere Stadium, Auckland
22 October 2022France 44–0 FijiNorthland Events Centre, Whangārei
23 October 2022England 75–0 South AfricaWaitakere Stadium, Auckland

Ranking of qualified teams
Team Pld W D L PF PA PD T B Pts Result
 New Zealand 3 3 0 0 154 29 +125 26 3 15 Pool leaders
 Canada 3 3 0 0 92 31 +61 16 3 15
 England 3 3 0 0 172 26 +146 28 2 14
 France 3 2 0 1 91 18 +73 14 3 11 Pool runners-up
 Italy 3 2 0 1 55 40 +15 8 1 9
 Australia 3 2 0 1 44 60 −16 6 0 8
 United States 3 1 0 2 54 68 −14 8 1 5 Third in pool
 Wales 3 1 0 2 37 84 −47 5 1 5
 Fiji 3 1 0 2 40 145 −105 6 0 4 Third in pool
Source: World Rugby
Rules for classification: 1) Points 2) Point differential 3) Points for 4) Most tries scored for

Knockout stage
Main article: 2021 Rugby World Cup knockout stage
 
Quarter-finalsSemi-finalsFinal
 
          
 
 29 October – Whangārei
 
 
 France39
 
 5 November – Auckland (Eden)
 
 Italy3
 
 France24
 
 29 October – Whangārei
 
 New Zealand25
 
 New Zealand55
 
 12 November – Auckland (Eden)
 
 Wales3
 
 New Zealand34
 
 30 October – Auckland (Waitakere)
 
 England31
 
 England41
 
 5 November – Auckland (Eden)
 
 Australia5
 
 England26
 
 30 October – Auckland (Waitakere)
 
 Canada19 Third place
 
 Canada32
 
 12 November – Auckland (Eden)
 
 United States11
 
 France36
 
 
 Canada0
 

Quarter-finals
29 October 2022
16:30 NZDT (UTC+13)
France  (4)39–3(5)  Italy
Try: Grisez (3) 3' c, 68' m, 70' c
Penalty try 61'
Touyé 64' c
Con: Drouin (2/2) 3', 65'
Queyroi (1/2) 71'
Pen: Drouin (2/2) 40', 55'		ReportPen: Sillari (1/1) 39'
Northland Events Centre, Whangārei
Referee: Hollie Davidson (Scotland)[14]
29 October 2022
19:30 NZDT (UTC+13)
New Zealand  (1)55–3(8)  Wales
Try: Woodman (2) 13' c, 43' c
Tui 20' m
Hirini 27' c
Rule 38' c
Connor (2) 49' m, 64' m
A. Bremner 56' m
Demant 68' m
Con: Demant (5/7) 14', 29', 39', 45', 50'		ReportPen: Bevan (1/1) 16'
Northland Events Centre, Whangārei
Referee: Aimee Barrett-Theron (South Africa)[14]
30 October 2022
13:30 NZDT (UTC+13)
England  (3)41–5(6)  Australia
Try: Hunter 8' c
M. Packer (3) 30' m, 39' c, 80' c
Ward 43' m
Cokayne 53' m
Matthews 65' m
Con: Scarratt (2/6) 9', 39'
Rowland (1/1) 80'		ReportTry: Chancellor 40' m
Waitakere Stadium, Auckland
Referee: Maggie Cogger-Orr (New Zealand)[14]
30 October 2022
16:30 NZDT (UTC+13)
Canada  (2)32–11(7)  United States
Try: Hunt 16' c
Paquin 20' m
Farries 41' c
Tessier 57' c
Con: de Goede (3/4) 14', 42', 58'
Pen: de Goede (2/2) 47', 65'		ReportTry: Kitlinski 9' m
Pen: Kelter (2/2) 38', 45'
Waitakere Stadium, Auckland
Referee: Joy Neville (Ireland)[14]

Semi-finals
5 November 2022
16:30 NZDT (UTC+13)
Canada 19–26 England
Try: Paquin 19' m
Corrigan 35' c
Beukeboom 68' c
Con: de Goede (2/3) 36', 68'		ReportTry: M. Packer 8' c
Dow (2) 15' m, 50' m
Con: Scarratt (1/3) 10'
Pen: Scarratt (3/3) 40', 43', 71'
Eden Park, Auckland
Referee: Aimee Barrett-Theron (South Africa)[14]
5 November 2022
19:30 NZDT (UTC+13)
New Zealand 25–24 France
Try: Fluhler 35' c
Tui 44' m
Fitzpatrick 57' c
Con: Holmes (1/2) 37'
Demant (1/1) 58'
Pen: Holmes (1/2) 29'
Demant (1/1) 63'		ReportTry: R. Ménager (2) 23' c, 65' c
Vernier 40' c
Con: Drouin (3/3) 23', 40' +1, 66'
Pen: Drouin (1/2) 7'
Eden Park, Auckland
Referee: Joy Neville (Ireland)[14]

Third-place play-off
12 November 2022
16:30 NZDT (UTC+13)
Canada 0–36 France
ReportTry: Fall 12' c
Bourdon 36' c
Ménager (2) 41' m, 61' c
Deshayes 44' c
Con: Drouin (4/5) 13', 37', 45', 62'
Pen: Drouin 21'
Eden Park, Auckland
Referee: Sara Cox (England)[14]

Final
Main article: 2021 Rugby World Cup Final
12 November 2022
19:30 NZDT (UTC+13)
England 31–34 New Zealand
Try: Kildunne 3' c
Cokayne (3) 13' c, 32' c, 54' m,
Packer 21' m
Con: Scarratt (3/5) 4' 15' 33'		ReportTry: Ponsonby 18' c
Leti-I'iga (2) 25' c, 71' m
Rule 40' m
Fluhler 41' m
Murray 49' m
Con: Holmes (2/6) 20' 26'
Eden Park, Auckland
Attendance: 42,579[15]
Referee: Hollie Davidson (Scotland)[14]

Statistics
See also: 2021 Rugby World Cup statistics

Source:[16]

Points scorers

Pos Name Team T C P DG Pts
1 Emily Scarratt  England 1 12 5 0 44
2 Caroline Drouin  France 1 12 3 0 38
3 Portia Woodman  New Zealand 7 0 0 0 35
Renee Holmes  New Zealand 2 11 1 0
5 Ruahei Demant  New Zealand 2 9 1 0 31
6 Amy Cokayne  England 6 0 0 0 30
Marlie Packer  England 6 0 0 0
Emily Tuttosi  Canada 6 0 0 0
9 Alev Kelter  United States 2 4 3 0 27
10 Ruby Tui  New Zealand 5 0 0 0 25

Try scorers

Pos Name Team Tries
1 Portia Woodman  New Zealand 7
2 Amy Cokayne  England 6
Marlie Packer  England
Emily Tuttosi  Canada
5 Ruby Tui  New Zealand 5
6 Abigail Dow  England 4
Paige Farries  Canada
Joanna Grisez  France
Claudia MacDonald  England
Connie Powell  England

Broadcasting

Spark Sport will be the host broadcaster for the Rugby World Cup, broadcasting all matches live[17] and on demand[18] through its online streaming platform. Three will broadcast a selection of games free-to-air on New Zealand television.

See also

References
  1. "Women's Rugby World Cup: Format changes announced for 2021 tournament". BBC Sport. 10 May 2018. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
  2. Orchard, Sara (2018). "Women's Rugby World Cup: Format changes announced for 2021 tournament". BBC. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  3. "New 2022 dates for postponed Rugby World Cup 2021 offer five-day rests". Insidethegames.biz. 12 May 2021. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  4. "New Zealand to host Women's World Cup". BBC Sport. Retrieved 14 May 2022.
  5. "Top Story: World Rugby drops gender titles for World Cups". SportsPro. 22 August 2019. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  6. "2021 World Cup set to be postponed for year". BBC Sport. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  7. "Bidding process opened for 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup". Inside the Games. 28 November 2014. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  8. Pavitt, Michael (20 March 2020). "Rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympics to open on July 23 in 2021". Inside the Games. Archived from the original on 18 February 2021. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  9. "All-Female Team of Referees to Take Charge of Rugby World Cup 2021". www.rugbyworldcup.com. 26 May 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  10. "New Zealand's Maggie Cogger-Orr Set to Officiate Opening Game of Rugby World Cup 2021". www.rugbyworldcup.com. 21 September 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  11. "Hollie Davidson Appointed Referee for Rugby World Cup 2021 Final". www.rugbyworldcup.com. 8 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  12. "Date set for 2021 Rugby World Cup draw". World Rugby. 19 October 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  13. "Confirmation of 2021 Rugby World Cup draw". World Rugby. 12 November 2020. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  14. "Appointments: Rugby World Cup 2021". www.worldrugby.org. Archived from the original on 1 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  15. Pearson, Joseph (12 November 2022). "Black Ferns stun England to win Rugby World Cup for a sixth time in Eden Park thriller". Stuff. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  16. "Rugby World Cup New Zealand 2021: Tournament Stats". Retrieved 8 November 2022.
  17. "RWC 2021 – Women's Rugby World cup Live Stream, TV Guide". RugbyOnlineStreams.com. Archived from the original on 9 December 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
  18. "RWC 2021 set to break new ground as tournament dates are announced". World Rugby. 3 February 2020. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
  19. "Rugby Canada (Design, Hosting, Registration & Administration tools by esportsdeskpro.com)". rugbycanada.ca. Archived from the original on 12 October 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  20. "Rugby Canada (Design, Hosting, Registration & Administration tools by esportsdeskpro.com)". rugbycanada.ca. Archived from the original on 25 August 2012. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  21. "Watch the 2021 Women's World Cup on Spark Sport". Spark Sport. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
  22. "Arranca el Mundial de Rugby Femenino, en directo y en exclusiva en Movistar Plus+" (in European Spanish). 6 October 2022. Retrieved 8 October 2022.
  23. "NBC Sports Group acquires exclusive US media rights to biggest events". World Rugby. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
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