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England to host France and New Zealand ahead of WXV title defence

By PA
Marlie Packer - PA

England will host France and New Zealand this autumn in the build-up to their second WXV 1 tournament.

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John Mitchell’s Red Roses, who secured a sixth successive Women’s Six Nations trophy last weekend, will first take on France at Gloucester’s Kingsholm Stadium on September 7 before welcoming the Black Ferns to Twickenham a week later.

England beat New Zealand to win the inaugural WXV 1 title in Auckland last November and will look to defend their title in the second edition, which takes place in Canada between September 27 and October 13.

Video Spacer

Watch the best tries of WXV 2023

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Watch the best tries of WXV 2023

“We want to host and play against the best sides in the world ahead of the 2025 Rugby World Cup, so these are two fixtures we are eagerly anticipating,” captain Marlie Packer said.

“Fans always bring the noise for games at Kingsholm and with many of our squad having connections to Gloucester, it should be another brilliant occasion.

“Our last two games at Twickenham have resulted in the best two crowds ever recorded in women’s rugby. We want more! Playing the Black Ferns at the home of English Rugby is an unbelievable opportunity that doesn’t come around all too often. We can’t wait for thousands of our supporters to get behind us on another special day at Twickenham.”

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Black Ferns Director of Rugby, Allan Bunting, said: “It is an awesome opportunity for our w?hine to be playing England at a packed-out Twickenham Stadium. To see the fans filling the stands during the Women’s Six Nations has been outstanding and we are hoping to see the same when we take on England’s Red Roses.”

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3 Comments
C
Courtney 204 days ago

I’m looking forward to attending the Twickenham match, I don’t think it will have a bearing on the outcome of the grand prize itself but it will tell us more about each teams’ preparation and game plan. It’s hard to look past one of the big four (I’m including Canada) lifting the trophy in 2025 but sport is a curious thing, there will still be twists and turns in road ahead.

B
Brian 204 days ago

No doubt this will be a fantastic occasion and I plan to be there, but I think the bean counters have won out over the rugby brains. In my opinion, it is foolhardy to give the Black Ferns the experience of playing in front of 60,000+ at Twickenham a year before they might be playing there in a World Cup Final. Better to play France at Twickenham and Black Ferns at Kingsholm. The difference in takings would be miniscule.

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Hellhound 21 minutes ago
France put World Cup pain behind them with unbeaten run in November

France is starting to look like they are finally over their WC headache, although they were lucky that NZ had a very bad game. The Argies as usual is one game good, the next bad. If they can sort that out and be more consistent, they could become contenders for the WC.


NZ, Argentina (if they are more consistent), and now the Wallabies too is in an upward curve (can they be consistent?), as well as Fiji(as inconsistent as Argentina) looks like possible contenders. The Boks will be as usual a huge threat to defend their title. Things are looking up for the South, so the North should rightfully beware of the Southern Hemisphere threat.


With the French looking dangerous, the English with their close runs (mostly a mindset problem) and the Scottish seems to be the NH main contenders. The Irish is good, but not excellent anymore. They are more overbearing and with their glory days mostly gone with old players hanging on by a thread, by 2027 if they don't start adding in the younger players, they won't make it past yet another WC Quarter final. The problem is that their youngsters, while good is nothing special.


That is just 8 teams without the Irish that can become real WC contenders. Lots of hickups to be sorted still for these teams, excluding the Boks to become a threat. Make no mistake, the top Tier is much closer than people realise and the 2027 WC will be a really great WC, possibly the best contended WC ever.

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