Women’s RWC 2025: England to face USA, New Zealand draw Ireland

England will face Australia, USA and Samoa during the pool stage of their home Women’s Rugby World Cup next year.

The Red Roses have never lost to Pool A rivals Australia or Samoa while their sole defeat to USA came in the inaugural World Cup final in 1991.

John Mitchell’s side beat the Women’s Eagles 61-21 three weeks ago, at the beginning of their title-winning WXV 1 campaign in Canada. Australia, meanwhile, are coached by former Red Roses scrum-half Jo Yapp who led the Wallaroos to the recent WXV 2 crown.

Elsewhere, defending champions New Zealand face a rematch with Ireland, who beat them in Vancouver last month and are the only team to have ever defeated the Black Ferns in the pool stage of a World Cup, knocking them out of the 2014 tournament.

They are joined in Pool C by Japan, who finished bottom of the WXV 2 standings in South Africa, and Spain who won WXV 3 last weekend having been edged to the 2023 title by the Irish.

Second seeds Canada have been drawn alongside Women’s Six Nations rivals Scotland and Wales as well as Fiji in Pool B.

Scotland and Wales met at the last World Cup in New Zealand, scrum-half Keira Bevan kicking a late penalty to lead the Welsh to an 18-15 victory and ultimately a place in the quarter-finals.

Pool D features France, Italy, South Africa and World Cup debutants Brazil, the lowest ranked nation in the tournament at 42nd.

"It's a really exciting draw for us. For me personally, when Samoa was called out first I got goosebumps because it was my first ever game in a World Cup back in 2014, was playing Samoa. So it brought back some really good memories," England captain Marlie Packer said.

"It is going to be a tough pool but it's going to pose questions. I think that's really good for us because we don't want to get to the knockout stages and [have] not been posed questions and made sure that we're in the best possible spot come those knockout stages."

"[It's] really exciting. The group is quite familiar," Ireland co-captain Sam Monaghan, who was a guest on the BBC's The One Show alongside Packer, said.

"We went on tour in Japan a couple of years ago and played Spain last year in WXV and New Zealand obviously we've just beaten, so we can take confidence from that.

"It's a good group, an exciting group, different styles of play."

Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 will kick-off in Sunderland on August 22nd next year, with the final set to be played at Twickenham on September 27th.

The full match schedule will be released next Tuesday. More than 60,000 tickets were sold for the opening match and finals day during last month’s initial sales window.

Full Women’s RWC 2025 pool draw:

Pool A

England

Australia

USA

Samoa

Pool B

Canada

Scotland

Wales

Fiji

Pool C

New Zealand

Ireland

Japan

Spain

Pool D

France

Italy

South Africa

Brazil