August 20, 2025

Possibly the biggest event in Women’s sport takes place in the UK from Friday night onwards, namely the Womens’ Rugby World Cup 2025. Let us park the fact that The Red Roses of England are the hottest favourites of any team in any sporting competition ever – perhaps other than when Tiger Woods was at his irresistible best or Usain Bolt was the only possible winner in the 100m. When I was on Club England, and helping to manage from a distance the direction of our eventual World Cup winners in 2003, that England squad under Clive Woodward and Andy Robinson had been No 1 in the world for only two years. South Africa, despite the much needed wake up call against Australia last weekend, have been at the top for 4 years, if only sometimes by one point. Against that dominance, The Red Roses have enjoyed a decade plus of success, being by far the most professional and best resourced squad on the planet and pretty much unbeatable.

Elsewhere, in cricket, much has been made of the ground-breaking dual approach to the investment made in the Hundred Franchise(T20), that has supercharged the women’s game from a branding and funding perspective and has introduced a whole new family audience to the sport, lighting a touchpaper for others.

In football, the Lionesses have a wonderful narrative all of their own. built on resilience and belief instilled in them by their incredible coach Sabrina Wiegman, and to see the disconsolate faces of the losing World Cup Champions Spain in the Euros Final was to understand the burgeoning importance of the game on and off the field. 

Other sports have got there quicker like golf, with the Solheim Cup just as exciting as any Ryder Cup.

Back to the Red Roses. They are multi-talented and have the extreme hurt of losing the last World Cup Final against the Black Ferns who benefited from the exceptional skills of the world’s leading coach, Wayne Smith, who came in to plot their home victory against the odds. Now, another Kiwi, John Mitchell as the England Head Coach, has the opportunity to plan a revenge and help this group fulfil their destiny. A home World Cup win can inspire a nation too and this is such an exciting moment in time – 40,000 for the opener in Sunderland, a football mad City!!!! It also brings a different type of pressure.

The challenge is in selection, tactics and expectation.The Red Roses can go route one given that they are so physical as they proved against France in the warm up game, when Les Bleues left some top players in the stand unlike England who, apparently, picked their top team. The only problem for any opposition is that they have another full squad equally as good! This kind of sporting certainty leaves me nervous, but when pretty much every other side in the tournament is amateur or semi pro at best, there is a risk of a very one sided competition and you can see no other outcome than an England win. Please please may Canada, Black Ferns, France find some exceptional form and make a strong challenge and bring the World Cup to life. For that they need to stay healthy because a long tournament brings with it injuries and fatigue.

The Springbok defeat against the Wallabies last weekend will serve as a warning however that there is no divine right to win. They will no doubt bounce back in Cape Town, and we will not see a repeat of their touch rugby defence.This squad has a ‘Red Rose like’ depth to it. They now have to look in the mirror to work out how much they want to be part of a possible ‘threepeat’ in Australia 2027, particularly some of their more experienced players who have recently chosen a pension fund enhancing experience in Japan (why on earth not), where the standard is distinctly variable. I said last time that Australia was a great side in the making and they are seemingly a little ahead of that prediction. Let us wait for Cape Town!

The Red Roses are already a great side – now for some self-made history as well as to spread the love of rugby across the country and the world.