Sinead Kissane’s wrap-up of the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025

I’ve been lucky to be at a few World Cup finals in the past but I’ve never experienced one quite like the 2025 edition. Not only did England save their best performance of the Women’s Rugby World Cup for the game that mattered the most, they did it in front of a record attendance for a women’s rugby game at the end of a record-breaking tournament.

The final was the most-watched women's rugby match ever on UK television with a peak audience of 5.8 million viewers and it was also the most-watched rugby match of 2025 in the UK – beating men’s tournaments like the Six Nations and the Lions series. What a way to sign-off a tournament!

Twickenham – or Allianz Stadium as it’s now known – was bouncing for the final between England and Canada. I’ve never been at a final with the host nation involved so to have the majority of the 81,885 present to be England supporters made for a cracking atmosphere. Compared to the crowd you would usually see at England HQ for a men’s international, there was a much broader age group at this final with a great mix of women, men, girls and boys. And the roars for the England tries and shrieks of celebrations were loud enough to rival nearby Heathrow for noise peaks.

Canada have been immense in this tournament and their victory over New Zealand in the semi-final was one of the all-time top performances in a World Cup. But the England defence was magnificent in their 33-13 win on Saturday. No matter what Canada threw at them, England absorbed it, answered the questions and were thoroughly deserving winners.

What also stood out to me from being at Twickenham last Saturday was seeing the England and Lions captain Maro Itoje sitting a few rows ahead of me. This was a big show of support. At the France-England semi-final, Fabien Galthie, the France men’s head coach, was there to watch the women play. We need to see more of this because the women’s game could do with more male allies offering their support to a game that is still in the infancy stage of its development.

The World Cup final wasn’t just a victory for the Red Roses but also for women’s rugby. England finally landing this title after losing the two previous finals is just reward for them being the market leaders of this sport. It was the RFU who led the way with investment and contracts for players and they helped transform the game from amateur to professionalised not to mention how they’ve developed the best women’s rugby league in the world with the Premiership Women’s Rugby.

What other unions like the IRFU need to do is ride that legacy wave that comes from a seismic event like this. There’s nothing more magnetic than winning to an audience and being close to England could have a knock-on effect for Ireland. The Irish team will be the first to get a crack at the newly crowned World Cup champions when Ireland play the Red Roses in the opening game of the 2026 Women’s Six Nations at Twickenham on April 11. What a day that could be to close the gap on England.

This World Cup has shown us a lot. Like the importance of female players showing their personality to help sell their sport and engage even more with the public. Over the past few months in the build-up and during the tournament, I’ve really enjoyed interviewing players who are happy to give more than what you would ever see from a male player. Stand-out interviews include interviewing Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald and her wife – and now World Cup winner – Claudia in the build-up to the World Cup. There were other players like Grace Moore who spoke openly about challenges she’s faced in the past. I’m in a very privileged position to be entrusted with people’s stories and it’s been a real highlight for me over the past few months.

Undoubtedly the last couple of weeks would have been tough viewing for Ireland players as they mourned the end of their World Cup dream for this edition. Of the four semi-finalists, they played two of them in their last two games and we know how close they went to pulling off a shock win over France in the quarter-final. But this entire experience will stand to them. They know the standards they need to get to and over the next four years, they have to out-kick the progress that other teams will also make. Ireland had to play catch-up in the past few years but they will go into this new four-year cycle on more of a level-footing. And they also need that to be reflected in increased support and investment from the union.

The new WXV Global Series is something to build on too with the top 12 teams (including Ireland) competing in a home-and-away, cross-regional touring model within a September-October international window. This is good news because at least it will give Ireland more games to build home support.

The Women’s Rugby World Cup has been a magnificent tournament. And it has done what all memorable competitions do; it’s left you wanting more.