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2025: What to look out for in huge year for women's game
By Matt Merritt
2025 is set to be a banner year for women’s rugby, with a World Cup on the horizon that’s set to break all manner of records. But there’s plenty to look forward to before that as well. Here’s our rundown of what to keep your eyes on this year!
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We start off strong with Ilona Maher’s arrival into Premiership Women’s Rugby. Maher is set to make her Bristol Bears debut after being named on the bench for Sunday’s home game against reigning league champions Gloucester-Hartpury. Her mere presence has caused the team to shift some fixtures to the larger Ashton Gate stadium, with over 8,000 fans expected for this mouth-watering clash.
It’s all the more intriguing with the Bears currently sitting just outside the playoff bracket. A lack of consistency, coupled with the resurgence of Harlequins Women under new coach Ross Chisholm, has pushed Bristol down into fifth place, so circle Valentines Day on your calendars now as there will be no love lost when the West Country outfit travel to Twickenham in February to tussle with Quins under the lights in a Friday night game.
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The excitement isn’t confined to England though, with the Celtic Challenge already underway, pitting teams from Ireland, Scotland and Wales against each other. This tournament, in its sophomore season with the current format, has been brilliant for creating a development pathway for players who can’t, or don’t want to, relocate to the PWR to play against top class opposition.
Keep an eye out for some well-known names and also for rising talent who will be fighting for a place at the incoming World Cup. Reigning champs the Wolfhounds remain the team to beat, with Aoife Wafer in their back row and Dannah O’Brien pulling the strings- these teams feature some of Ireland’s top talent. You can watch all Celtic Challenge matches for free on RugbyPass TV.
Despite being harder to watch live due to lack of international broadcasting, the action is no less intense across the channel in France’s Elite 1 competition. At the time of writing Stade Bordelais sit atop the table and will hope to maintain top spot through their remaining fixtures. Les Lionnes are speckled with home-grown internationals including Madoussou Fall and Agathe Sochat, as well as overseas talent- Canada’s Justine Pelletier and Scotland’s Rhona Lloyd.
Moving to the southern hemisphere, Super Rugby kicks off on February 28th in Australia, with Super Rugby Aupiki’s first game coming the same weekend across the Tasman Sea. With Australia being a much improved side in 2024 and the Black Ferns aiming to spoil the party at the World Cup, both leagues will be worth keeping an eye on, with plenty of players to watch.
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As those competitions heat up, we’ll be coming to the business end of the season in England’s PWR, with the final playing out on March 16th at Stone X Stadium, home of Saracens Women who will be hoping to return to the final and their winning ways, after two seasons of Gloucester-Hartpury taking home the trophy.
April sees the Six Nations kick off and will present us with the opportunity to see what sort of squads are being built for the World Cup and who is making a last-minute push for their place.
This is likely to be echoed by the Pacific Four tournament as New Zealand, Canada, Australia and the USA make their own assessments on squad readiness. The exact dates for the tournament are yet to be announced but expect it to start in late April or early May.
All of which leads us to the jewel in the crown of the rugby calendar. The World Cup kicks off in Sunderland on August 22nd with England taking on the USA Eagles in the opening match, with the final taking place on September 27th, at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham.
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Along the way there will be some interesting games to take in. Keep your eyes on South Africa v Brazil on August 24th (in Northampton) and Japan v Spain in York on September 7th for just two examples of fascinating matchups featuring up-and-coming teams.
If all that doesn’t get you excited for 2025, don’t forget that once the World Cup ends we’ll have a short break before we’re straight back into PWR and Elite 1 action again and with the start of a new World Cup cycle we’ll see retirements, player movement and all sorts of changes to keep us excited as we head into next Autumn!
For now though, we’ve got a full slate of games in the PWR to look forward to. Saturday gives us a London derby as Trailfinders Women host Harlequins, while Sale Sharks Women make a relatively short journey to Leicester to face off against the Tigers.
As mentioned, Sunday sees fifth place Bristol Bears match up against third in the table Gloucester-Hartpury, with a huge crowd expected at Ashton Gate and a fascinating match up as Loughborough Lightning take on Saracens.
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