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Standout women's rugby moments of 2024
After a blockbuster year of women’s rugby around the world, here are some of the highlights of 2024 as we look ahead to the biggest Women’s Rugby World Cup to date in 2025.
British and Irish Lions Women’s announcement
In January, it was announced that the inaugural women’s Lions tour will take place in 2027. The three-Test tour will take place in New Zealand, where selected players from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales will face six-time world champions the Black Ferns in their own backyard.
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Founding partner of the British and Irish Lions Women’s team, Royal London, pledged £3 million in funding to the unions of the four participating nations this year. The ‘Levelling the Playing Field’ grant has been dispersed across player and coach pathways in the different unions.
Super Rugby Aupiki
Blues Women claimed their first Super Rugby Aupiki title this year, defeating Chiefs Manawa in the final at Eden Park on 13 April.
Katelyn Vahaakolo scored twice in the final, in addition to tries from fellow Black Ferns Kahlia Awa and Liana Mikaele-Tu’u and two conversions from Krysten Cottrell secured the 24–18 victory for the Blues. Renee Holmes’s 13 points and a try from Mia Anderson weren’t enough to get Chiefs Manawa over the line, despite leading 5-18 with 15 minutes left on the clock.
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The expanded competition for the 2024 season took place in a round-robin format, home and away, ensuring each team played at least six fixtures. At the end of the round-robin, the Blues led the standings with 23 points, five wins from six securing the home final, while Chiefs Manawa’s four wins gave them a place in the final with 20 points.
The only loss for the Blues came in round two when they fell to Chiefs Manawa 10-17, but when round five came around they inflicted a 40-26 defeat on the Chiefs before facing them in the final.
Portia Woodman-Wickliffe is among the nine signings for the Blues ahead of the 2025 season. Former Chiefs player Dwayne Sweeney has been named as Chiefs Manawa head coach, taking over from Crystal Kaua who has moved on to coach Brazil’s women’s sevens team.
Pacific Four Series
It was a brilliant year for Canada, both for their 15s and sevens women’s sides, which kicked off with an immense Pacific Four Series victory. Kévin Rouet’s side, after defeating the USA and Australia earlier in the competition, beat New Zealand for the first time in their history to claim the PAC 4 title.
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A brace from Fancy Bermudez bolstered Canada’s 22-19 victory, while Sophie de Goede’s conversions and penalty, in addition to a try from prop McKinley Hunt completed the victorious scoreline in Christchurch.
The USA, despite losing their opening two matches, ended the tournament on a high with their victory over Australia, which qualified them for Women’s RWC 2025 as well as the top level of WXV later in 2024.
Celtic Challenge
After a successful pilot season the year prior, the 2023/24 Celtic Challenge season saw Wolfhounds take their first title. From the six teams competing, over 68 players went on to represent their senior international sides in the Women’s Six Nations.
The winner of the competition is decided by the highest-standing team in the table at the end of the season, and this season Wolfhounds won the title, seven points ahead of runners-up Edinburgh. Ireland’s year on the international side was bolstered by the win for the Wolfhounds, in addition to the Clovers finishing third with 17 points.
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The expanded ten-round 2024/25 season kicks off with Edinburgh Rugby vs Glasgow Warriors on December 20. Defending champions Wolfhounds will start their season against Clovers on December 22 at Energia Park.
Click here for more information about Celtic Challenge 2024/25.
Women’s Six Nations
England claimed their sixth successive Six Nations, and third consecutive Grand Slam title this April, with a resounding 42-21 victory over France in Bordeaux.
The Red Roses, under the guidance of new head coach John Mitchell, started their campaign with a 48-0 away win against Italy, before going on to defeat Wales at Ashton Gate (46-10), Scotland in Edinburgh (46-0), and Ireland at Twickenham Stadium (88-10) ahead of their finale in France. Captain Marlie Packer reached a milestone of her own during the victorious campaign when she became just the seventh woman to reach 100 caps for the Red Roses in their match against Italy in Parma.
Ireland had a fruitful Six Nations campaign, finishing third with wins over Wales and Scotland, to qualify for RWC 2025 and WXV 1, where they also flourished.
Scotland’s first-round victory against Wales marked their first away victory in Wales in 20 years thanks to Helen Nelson’s 74th-minute penalty, which also saw Bryan Easson’s side reach their longest winning streak at the time with their seventh win in a row.
In round two, Italy saw off Ireland at the RDS Arena to claim their first-ever away win against the home side with a 27-21 scoreline.
France vs Italy in round three marked trailblazing referee Joy Neville’s final Test match as an official as the former Ireland captain had announced she would retire at the end of the competition.
England’s Ellie Kildunne was named Player of the Championship and would go on to be crowned World Rugby Women’s 15s Player of the Year in November.
Next year will see England play at RWC 2025 venues York Community Stadium (versus Italy), and Twickenham Stadium (versus France), as well as facing Scotland at Leicester Tigers’ Mattioli Woods Welford Road.
Premiership Women’s Rugby
The 2023/24 Premiership Women’s Rugby season saw Gloucester-Hartpury claim back-to-back titles at Sandy Park.
The Circus, as they’re known, only lost one match all season before defeating Exeter 50-19 in the semi-final. They faced Bristol Bears in an all-West Country final at Sandy Park, and took the spoils 36-24 with tries from Natasha ‘Mo’ Hunt, Pip Hendy, Emma Sing, Mia Venner, and Hannah Jones.
The completion of the season also marked the first season in the top flight for debutants Leicester Tigers and Trailfinders. Led by Giselle Mather in their first involvement in the league, Trailfinders finished sixth with five wins. Tigers ended the season eighth out of nine with two wins.
Red Roses and Leicester Tigers player Megan Jones won the first-ever PWR Player of the Season award, with Gloucester-Harpury’s Sean Lynn named Coach of the Season.
The condensed 2024/25 season to allow for preparation for RWC 2025 is already well underway, with the last matches of 2024 taking place in round 11 on 21 December and 28 December. Sale Sharks vs Loughborough Lightning, Saracens vs Bristol Bears, and Exeter Chiefs vs Gloucester-Hartpury are all set to happen on 21 December before Harlequins and Leicester Tigers meet at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium in Big Game on 28 December to bring the year to a close.
Excitement for 2025 is already brewing in the PWR, not least because Ilona Maher will join Bristol Bears with the aim of making the USA squad for RWC 2025. The arrival of rugby’s biggest star has already prompted Bristol to change venue from Shaftesbury Park to Ashton Gate as fans eagerly anticipate her potential debut against Gloucester-Hartpury on 5 January, with a record figure of over 4,000 tickets sold so far.
Maher has used her social media platform, the biggest of any rugby player in the world with over 7 million followers combined across Instagram and TikTok, to encourage fans to go and support Bristol, even though the round 12 clash with last year’s champions might be too soon for her to be included in the matchday team.
SVNS Series
Black Ferns Sevens triumphed in the HSBC SVNS Series in the 2023/24 season, winning four out of the seven events before the Grand Final in Madrid to claim the League title. A hat-trick from Michaela Blyde in the final sealed the deal for the Black Ferns to take the first-ever HSBC SVNS Singapore title.
The League was decided right down to the last game between New Zealand and Australia as both went into the final on 106 points, but it was the Black Ferns who claimed the 31-21 win to take the full 20 points, finishing with 126 after previous victories in Vancouver, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong.
Ireland were the only other women’s team to win a stage of the HSBC SVNS Series aside from New Zealand and Australia when they took the title in Perth ahead of Australia, with the USA finishing third.
Australia were crowned HSBC SVNS Series Champions in the Madrid Grand Final as they beat France 26-7 to claim their first silverware since Cape Town with a hat-trick from Maddison Levi sending them on their way to the title. Levi went on to be crowned World Rugby Women’s Sevens Player of the Year after a stellar season which saw her score the most tries in a single Olympic Games in Paris (14), as well as scoring the second-highest number of tries for any player, male or female, in one season in HSBC SVNS history (69).
Levi was named alongside Canada’s Olivia Apps, France’s Séraphine Okemba, New Zealand’s Michaela Blyde and Jorja Miller, and the USA’s Kristi Kirshe and Maher in the World Rugby Women’s Sevens Dream Team of the Year.
It’s one apiece for Australia and New Zealand so far this season with the Wallaroos taking the spoils in Dubai on the opening round before the Black Ferns, who were runners-up in Dubai, claimed the title in Cape Town.
Victory over Australia in the semi-final saw the USA qualify for the final in Cape Town where they finished second, while France took back-to-back third places to put them third overall going into the next stage in Perth in January.
Olympics
Sevens continued to thrive on the biggest stage of all, the Paris 2024 Olympics. The competition set a record crowd of 66,000 for a women’s rugby event as more eyes than ever were drawn to the game.
On the pitch, New Zealand won their second successive Olympic gold, and continue as the only team on the women’s side to have medalled at every Games. Canada earned their second Olympic rugby sevens medal when they took silver to add to their bronze from 2016.
Following the Olympics, rugby great Woodman-Wickliffe called time on her glittering 12-year international rugby career that’s seen her win two RWCs in 15s, two RWCs in sevens, and two Olympic golds. The Black Fern holds the record for the most tries scored at any RWC with 20, and was named World 15s Player of the Year (2017), World Sevens Player of the Year (2015), and World Sevens Player of the Decade (2020) in addition to a myriad of other accolades.
The USA claimed their first Olympic medal for rugby sevens, defeating Australia in the bronze medal match as Alex ‘Spiff’ Sedrick’s heroics ultimately secured the hardware.
USA head coach Emilie Bydwell made history with the Highwomen as she became the first-ever female rugby sevens coach to win an Olympic medal. Bydwell was the only female head coach on the SVNS Series last season, but now there are six female head coaches, which means 50% of the women’s teams are led by women.
Away from the pitch, USA’s Maher became rugby’s most-followed player on social media, boosted by the seismic growth in her following during Paris 2024. The 28-year-old also competed in Dancing with the Stars, and finished in an impressive second place with dance partner Alan Bersten.
The American team were also provided the unprecedented investment from businesswoman Michele Kang that will see them awarded $1 million a year for the next four years, with hopes of securing a gold medal in LA 2028.
WXV
WXV returned for a second year, breaking new ground in Canada for WXV 1 and returning to South Africa and the United Arab Emirates for WXV 2 and 3 respectively.
England secured back-to-back WXV 1 titles in Vancouver, defeating Canada in a tense final match at BC Place following wins over the USA and New Zealand in the earlier rounds. Ireland, after a historic win over the Black Ferns and victory over the USA in their final match, finished second.
It was a stunning accomplishment given the year before they had competed in WXV 3, which they won. Ireland’s Erin King ended the year as World Rugby Women’s 15s Breakthrough Player of the Year after pivotal involvements during their WXV campaign.
WXV 2 saw Australia win their first title, a significant marker of improvement under new coach Jo Yapp. Defending champions Scotland finished second this time around in Cape Town, losing to the Wallaroos in the final match.
WXV 3, which took place in Dubai, was won by Spain for the first time which saw them also earn RWC 2025 qualification alongside Samoa, and backed up their sixth successive Rugby Europe Women’s Championship title from earlier in the year.
WXV once again provided vital international competition for 18 teams across three levels, and was even more pertinent this year as it allowed six teams to secure the last RWC 2025 spots for the six highest non-qualified teams (Australia, Scotland, Italy, Wales, Spain, and Samoa) at the end of the competition.
All 16 teams confirmed for RWC 2025
As of October, all 16 teams had their places confirmed and what’s set to be the biggest Women’s RWC to date. Brazil, as a result of their Sudamerica play-off victory against Colombia, became the first-ever South American team to qualify for the Women’s RWC, and will make their debut in Pool D.
The Springbok Women, who are also in Pool D alongside France and Italy, qualified for RWC 2025 by defending their Rugby Africa Women’s Cup title with a 46-17 victory over Madagascar in the final. They’ll meet Brazil at Franklin’s Gardens, Northampton for their first match of RWC 2025 on 24 August.
Fiji’s unbeaten Oceania Rugby Women’s Championship saw them claim their fourth title, alongside RWC 2025 qualification in June after their 27-13 win over Samoa in Brisbane. They’ll be up against Canada, Scotland, and Wales in Pool B next year and will start their campaign against current world number two side Canada at York Community Stadium on 23 August.
Japan’s success against Hong Kong and Kazakhstan in May won them the Asia Rugby Women’s Championship in addition to RWC 2025 qualification, and they’ll face New Zealand, Ireland, and Spain in Pool C. Their first RWC 2025 contest will be against Ireland on 24 August at Franklin’s Gardens.
