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England desperate to get it over the line – Maggie Alphonsi on RWC 2025 chances

By PA
YORK, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 5: Maggie Alphonsi and Jodie Ounsley pose during the Women's Rugby World Cup 2025 ticket applications launch at City Cruises York on November 5, 2024 in York, England. (Photo by Ed Sykes - World Rugby via Getty Images)

Former World Cup winner Maggie Alphonsi believes England will be “desperate” to get over the line and win next year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup.

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The Red Roses are competing on home soil at the 2025 World Cup and will be aiming to go one step further following a difficult loss in the 2021 final, where New Zealand came from behind to clinch their sixth title with a 34-31 victory at Eden Park.

The Black Ferns have been a constant thorn in England’s side at World Cups, beating them in five finals since 2002.

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‘This Energy Never Stops’ – One year to go until the Women’s Rugby World Cup

With exactly one year to go until Women’s Rugby World Cup England 2025 kicks off
in Sunderland, excitement is sweeping across the host nation in anticipation of what
will be the biggest and most accessible celebration of women’s rugby ever.

Register now for the ticket presale

Video Spacer

‘This Energy Never Stops’ – One year to go until the Women’s Rugby World Cup

With exactly one year to go until Women’s Rugby World Cup England 2025 kicks off
in Sunderland, excitement is sweeping across the host nation in anticipation of what
will be the biggest and most accessible celebration of women’s rugby ever.

Register now for the ticket presale

England’s World Cup opener at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light is now only nine months away and the team are in a strong position having not tasted defeat since that 2021 final loss and currently ranked number one in the world.

Additionally, they recorded victories over New Zealand in September and October this year and Alphonsi hopes England can channel some of that success for the World Cup, which has already seen over 130,000 tickets sold through pre-sales.

“England definitely need to take and harness all the success they’ve had against New Zealand in between World Cups,” Alphonsi told the PA news agency.

“Some might say they have a mental block when it comes to playing New Zealand in a World Cup because England, even the teams I’ve been part of, have never beaten New Zealand in a World Cup.

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“England have to really channel that success and confidence of beating New Zealand in between to harness that for the World Cup.

“But at the same time, England can’t think about New Zealand, because if you spend too much time thinking about them then all of a sudden other teams sneak through.

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“Canada, we played them in the final in 2014 and at one stage I think they probably could have knocked us out of that tournament.

“I think for England it’s all about that mentality as well as physical strength and fitness, have they got the mindset to get it over the line?

“That’s going to be the big thing because they’ve missed out so many times, they’ve been in every final, but it’s been 10 years since we last won a World Cup. They’re going to want to desperately get it over the line this time around.”

England’s last taste of World Cup glory came in 2014 when they claimed a 21-9 victory over Canada in Paris.

Alphonsi was part of that team and announced her international retirement shortly after the triumph, admitting it was a “relief” to finally secure the trophy.

“It was amazing because it was a tournament in France and I think I’d started to see women’s rugby get much more attention,” Alphonsi added.

“When we won it in 2014, for me personally it was a relief. For me and my teammates it was 12 years on that journey of trying to get to that point of winning that World Cup and we finally did it.

“It was a really amazing occasion because family and friends were able to come out and see France, it was very special.”

The Women’s Rugby World Cup England 2025 gets underway at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland on Friday, August 22 and runs until September 27. General sale ticket applications for all matches are available until 11am (GMT) November 19 2024.

Women’s Rugby World Cup England 2025 tickets application phase is now open! Apply now.

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1 Comment
S
SadersMan 6 days ago

A bit arrogant to start selecting the finalists this far out. We only need look at the semis in RWC2021 (2022) to know that the Final could just as easily have been CAN v FRA. Or CAN v NZL, or ENG v FRA.


Also, drawing on pre RWC2025 wins will mean nothing. You have to start the campaign from the floor. Otherwise, you subconsciously create an entitlement mentality. Good luck to all teams, esp the Black Ferns.

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JW 1 hour ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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