Women's Rugby Rundown

Jan 24-30. We learned about the qualification pathway for the 2025 Rugby World Cup, more details around the World Rugby WXV competition, Tik Tok was announced as the first ever title partnership of the Women’s Six Nations and Australia won the second leg of Spain 7s. In more XVs news, Watsonian has retained the Tennent’s Premiership Title in Scotland, Ireland’s AIL round 3 saw Blackrock and Sutonn...

Welcome to the top women’s rugby news in under 60 seconds for Jan 10-16. New Zealand has upgraded their player contracts, moving them to “as close to full time employment” as possible and Wales awarded their first ever player contracts. Huge huge steps forward for both of these programs. In more XVs news, Spain announced warm up matches last week against Italy and Colombia but unfortunately Italy...

Welcome to the top women's rugby news in under 60 seconds for Jan 3-9. We start with Spain’s announcement of "warm-up" matches against Italy and Colombia as they prepare for the European Championships, we review round 10 of Allianz Premier 15s and we look ahead to Ireland's AIL semi-final matchups. In more XVs news, Asia has rebranded their ‘Women’s Advisory Committee, to be the “Gender Equity Com...

Welcome to the top women's rugby news in under 60 seconds for Dec 6-12. We learned the winners of the World Rugby Awards, Black Fern Te Kura Ngata-Aerengamte bravely shared her story of experiencing a mental breakdown during the Autumn Internationals, and former Ireland captain Claire Molloy has called for more accountability in women's rugby. In domestic XVs news, the USA's Women's Premier League...

Welcome to the top women's rugby news in under 60 seconds for Nov 22-28. Big news from World Rugby this week and we’ll be looking down at our notes so we get it all right!  First the Final Qualification Tournament for the 2021 Rugby World Cup will take place in Dubai on February 18 and 24. Scotland, Samoa, Colombia and the winner of the Hong Kong v Kazakhstan play-off will compete for the last rem...

Welcome to the top women's rugby news in under 60 seconds for Nov 8-14. We begin and end with Ireland. Anthony Eddy, the IRFU’s Director of Rugby held an interview where he spoke about the women's failure to qualify for the 2021 Rugby World Cup. He pinned the fault directly on the players and he defended the systems the IRFU has in place. Very quickly former players spoke out against his comments...

Welcome to the top women's rugby news in under 60 seconds for Nov 1-7. We begin with all the scores from the Autumn International matches over the weekend and Wales in a surprise announcement is investing more than $2.5 million dollars in contracting up to 25 players. 10 players will become “professional” and the rest will be on “retained” contracts. This is an incredibly exciting step forward for...

Here’s your women’s rugby news in under 60 seconds for Oct 18-24. Japan has qualified for the 2021 Rugby World Cup after a revision to the Asia pathway. USA announced their interest in hosting the 2027, 2029 or 2031 Rugby World Cup while England also expressed interest in hosting in 2025. In more XVs news, France announced their squad ahead of Autumn Internationals and Ireland announced Greg McWil...

Here’s your women’s rugby news in under 60 seconds for Oct 11-17. Tunisia has won the 2021 Africa Cup, Sweden is undefeated so far in the European Trophy & Ireland announced two Autumn International matches against USA and Japan in November. We’re also looking at Canada’s announced roster as they prepare for matches against the USA, England and Wales. Speaking of Wales, they have appointed Ioa...

Welcome to the top women's rugby news in for Sep 27-Oct 3. World Rugby has confirmed a new cross-regional XVs tournament between Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand, called the Pacific Four Series, and we now know the finalists for the Dr Farah Palmer Cup Premiership and Championship. In more International XVs news, South Africa has named their squad ahead of matches against France and the Barb...

Welcome to the top women's rugby news for Sep 20-26. Italy defeated Spain on the last day of competition at the European Qualifiers and punched their ticket for the 2021 Rugby World Cup. They will be in Pool B with Canada, USA and Asia 1. Scotland upset Ireland in the final moments of their match and moved on to the Final Qualification Tournament (repechage). A lot of focus has been on Ireland and...

Welcome to the top women's rugby news for Sep 13-19! It was a huge week with the Rugby World Cup 2021 European Qualifiers, the Fast Four Tournament at Vancouver 7s, and more. The European Qualifiers began on Monday with Italy defeating Scotland 38-13 and Spain narrowly upsetting Ireland 8-7. Then on Sunday, the teams swapped opponents and we watched Ireland stifle Italy 15-7 while Scotland beat Sp...

Welcome to the top women's rugby news for Sep 6-12. Munster are the 2021 Vodafone Interprovincial Champions after defeating Ulster 50-5, Saracens, Harlequins and Bristol are tied for first after two rounds of Allianz Premier 15s, and the Dr Farah Palmer Cup will restart with limited matches this weekend. In 7s news, Vancouver will host a "Fast Four" tournament with Canada, Great Britain, USA and M...

Welcome to the top women's rugby news for Aug 30 - Sep 5. World Rugby confirmed the schedule for the Rugby World Cup 2021 European Qualifier taking place in Italy on September 13, 19 and 25. The winner takes the Europe 1 place in Pool B and the runner-up will progress to the Final Qualification Tournament. In HSBC 7s news, we learned that the stops in Singapore and Cape Town have been cancelled du...

Welcome to the top women's rugby news for Aug 23-29. Colombia defeated Kenya in a very tight affair 16-15 and moves on to the Final Qualifier Tournament ahead of the 2021 Rugby World Cup, the Barbarians will be back to face South Africa on November 27 at Twickenham, Munster is top of Ireland's Interprovincial competition and the Black Ferns 7s say goodbye to Alan Bunting and promote Cory Sweeney....

Welcome to the top women's rugby news for Aug 16-22! We start with South Africa defeating Kenya 29-22 taking the series 2-0, Scion won the Emil Signes Cup at the USA Rugby National Club 7s and England, USA, Canada, France and New Zealand announced fall tests. If these matches happen, it would be many of the sides first matches since the pandemic began. In more XVs news, the Bunnings Dr Farah Palme...

Welcome to the top women's rugby news for Jul 19 - Aug 1. We’re doing things a bit differently this week, I’ll still talk fast but I’ll be covering two weeks. I’ll also be using a script because I want to make sure I get all of the details correct. We’ll start with the Olympics, New Zealand has conquered Tokyo and now holds EVERY title in women's rugby in 7s and XVs. Incredible! France took home t...

Welcome to the top women's rugby news for July 12-18. World Rugby has announced new trial law amendments that will begin in August. These have a specific focus on the women's game and this is important because there is little research around injury, recovery, concussion, menstruation, etc. In XVs news, Madagascar has moved up to 27th place in the World Rugby Rankings which is is their highest plac...

Welcome to the top women's rugby news for June 28 - July 4. We begin with the exciting news that the pools have been confirmed for the Olympics! Pool A includes New Zealand, Russia, Great Britain and Kenya, Pool B is Canada, France, Fiji and Brazil and Pool C includes Australia, USA, China and Japan. We expect the match schedule to be released as early as next week. In XVs news, the Waratahs took...

Welcome to the top women's rugby news for June 21-27. It was a huge week for 7s, the Black Ferns, USA, and Russia all took home trophies for Oceania 7s, Quest for Gold 7s and the Europe 7s Championships. In more 7s news, Kenya was replaced by Mexico for the USA event and instead entered their Olympic pre-departure bubble. Reuters listed their five players to watch ahead of Tokyo and the list inclu...

Welcome to the top women's rugby news for June 14-20. France and Russia swept the last Olympic Qualifying event and have booked their tickets to the Olympics in Tokyo. In more 7s news, Czechia won the first leg of the Europe 7s Trophy Series, Fiji has entered their training bubble ahead of the inaugural PacificAus Oceania 7s, and USA announces an invitational only National Championship Club 7s tou...

Welcome to the top women's rugby news for May 24-30. We start with two announcements from World Rugby. First, South Africa and France will open the Rugby World Cup 2021 tournament on October 8. Matches will then continue throughout October and end on November 12 with the Finals. Second, the 7s Repechage match schedule was announced and will serve as the final Olympic qualification event for Tokyo....

Welcome to the top women's rugby news for May 17-23. We begin with the Allianz Premier 15s semi-finals where the Harlequins and Saracens defeated Wasps and Loughborough putting them in the Championship in Kingsholm on May 30th. We also look at Round three of South Africa's Premier Division where Border Ladies and DHL Western are dominating the division with three wins in a row, and New Zealand ann...

Welcome to the top women's rugby news for May 10-16. World Rugby announced dates for the 2021 Rugby World Cup and the 2022 Rugby World Cup. News that mostly flew under the radar was that Dr. Jonathan Webb was elected as the newest World Rugby Executive Committee member. While Webb was a fantastic candidate, they missed an opportunity to begin moving towards balancing the genders of the group and t...

Welcome to the top women's rugby news for May 3-9! We begin with an eye towards the Olympics as Great Britain, France, Ireland, USA, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Kenya, Madagascar,Tunisia, Uganda, Zimbabwe and South Africa have held or will be holding events to continue preparing for the Repechage or the Games. We also continue our coverage of Canada who announced that several female players hav...