About Rugby World Cup 2021

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Rugby World Cup 2021 will take place in New Zealand from 18 September to 16 October with matches played in three venues across Auckland and Whangarei. The tournament will be the ninth women’s Rugby World Cup and the first to be held in the southern hemisphere.

New Zealand 2021 will also be the second tournament held outside of Europe, having first been held in Wales in 1991 followed by Scotland (1994), the Netherlands (1998), Spain (2002), Canada (2006), England (2010), France (2014) and Ireland (2017).

The showpiece event in women’s rugby union 15s, Rugby World Cup 2021 will again feature 12 teams – seven of whom qualified directly via their performances at Ireland 2017 and five from a global qualification process – with 26 matches played across 35 days.

RWC 2021 will be the first Rugby World Cup to adopt a gender-neutral naming approach, furthering World Rugby’s commitment to equality and consistency across its portfolio of major tournaments. World Rugby were the first major sporting federation to adopt this policy for its major tournaments.

VENUES

Eden Park, Waitakere Stadium and Northland Events Centre will all host matches at RWC 2021.

The iconic Eden Park, which hosted the men’s RWC finals in 1987 and 2011, in Auckland and Whangarei’s Northland Events Centre will host three matches each on the opening day on 18 September.

Waitakere Stadium and Northland Events Centre will host the remaining pool matches across 23 and 28 September and the quarter-finals on 3 October. The action will then return to Eden Park for the semi-finals on 9 October and the bronze final and final on 16 October.