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The Women's Rugby World Cup is the premier international competition in rugby union for women. The tournament is organised by the sport's governing body the International Rugby Board (IRB). The championships are currently held every four years
The first Women's Rugby World Cup was held in 1991, and won by the United States. Though the 1991 tournament, along with the subsequent 1994 competition were not officially sanctioned by the IRB. The 1998 tournament held in the Netherlands was backed by the IRB. The current world champions are New Zealand.
Format
The current format splits the 12 participating nations into four pools of three teams. Each nation plays three games, after the completition of these rounds, a re-seeding process takes place. Nations are moved into divisions which are dictated by their respective overall tournament ranking.
History
Prior to the first Women's Rugby World Cup officially sanctioned by the International Rugby Board (IRB) there had been three previous tounaments of a similar nature. The first of these was an event held in 1990 in New Zealand. Though not considered a World Cup, the tournament was referred to as the 'Rugby world cup Festival for Women'. The competition included the United States, the Netherland, the Soviet Union as well as a few other nations. The host, New Zealand, emerged as winners.
The first tournament refered to as the Women's Rugby World Cup was held in 1991 and hosted by Wales, yet fiscal reality and bad timing combined to take much shine off of the event, leading to minimal interest from local media. Many teams involved could not easily afford to participate, and the second men’s World Cup was being held in neighboring England, thus diverting much attention from the women’s game.
Twelve countries were divided into four groups of three. The USA shocking all those involved, took the first championship with a 19-6 victory over England, while in the Plate competition for second place teams Canada prevailed over Spain 18-4. Following the tournament it was decided to move the tournament schedule to the year prior to the next men's world cup – reducing the quadrennial cycle to just three years.
Following endorsement problems by the IRB, the second tournament, originally scheduled for Amsterdam ended up being moved to Scotland after some national unions pulled funding for team expenses. Many teams, ignoring the message being sent by their national bodies, raised their own finances – and this spirit convinced various rugby powers to organize the alternate competition in Scotland. Again only twelve countries competed.
Now considered a legitimate world championship event, Amsterdam hosted the largest ever tournament with all matches played at the new National Rugby Centre in the city’s west end and a record sixteen teams competing.
With New Zealand back for the 2002 world cup it quickly became clear that the Black Ferns were single minded in the pursuit of world glory, crushing their opponents to take the title for the second time.
The 2006 world cup is set to take place in Edmonton, Canada.
Results
Tournaments
| Year | Host | Final | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | Score | Runner-up | |||
| 1991 Details | Wales | 19 - 6 | |||
| 1994 Details | Scotland | 38 - 23 | |||
| 1998 Details | Netherlands | 44 - 12 | |||
| 2002 Details | Spain | 19 - 9 | |||
| 2006 Details | Canada | ||||
| 2010 Details | |||||
Performance of nations
New Zealand - 2 titles USA - 1 title England - 1 title
Media Coverage
As in many other women's sports the Women's World Cup recieves far less television and media coverage than the men's equivalent. Many critics have attributed this toward the International Rugby Board (IRB) for poor marketing and organisation of the tournament which is believed to have lead to the lack of interest in the competition.
See also
References
External link
"Women's Rugby World Cup"