England, the host country for the 2025 Rugby World Cup, has a major role to play in the next phase of the sport’s development, according to the head of the women’s game at the Rugby World Championship.
Sally Horrocks joined the organization as director of women’s rugby in May and will be among what is expected to be a record crowd of more than 40,000 on Saturday as she watches New Zealand champions England in this year’s World Cup title game, kicking off at 6:30am in the UK.
While Red Roses captain Sarah Hunter admits there is “nothing to think about after Saturday” at camp, Horrocks is already looking forward to England turning around to welcome the world in three years’ time.
“I feel like there is something really special going on here in New Zealand right now,” she told the Palestinian News Agency. “There is an awakening to women’s rugby, a passion for it. The characters connect, the audience expands.
“That energy and enthusiasm translates into this, I know it’s a cliché, but I think it’s a stepping stone. I think that’s going to catalyze this next period of growth as we come out of the tail end of the World Cup.
“Champions are great, but it’s really important that we keep our pace on the other side of the competition and head to England in 2025. It’s more than just sport on the pitch. That’s what we’re going to do next.”
One of the main criticisms against women’s football is that it is dominated by a handful of countries, chief among them England. The Red Roses are one of the only fully professional teams, a condition also reflected in their world number one ranking.
Should they win the World Cup, Simon Middleton’s side, who have not lost since 2019, would extend their Test unbeaten run to 31 matches. Her 25th win in August set a new all-time record for both the men’s and women’s competitions.
But rather than dampen the dominance of the finalists, Horrocks sees the Red Roses and England as examples of what she hopes will happen elsewhere.
She said: “It’s always great to have a leader. Good practices, something to aspire to in any area of business or sport. We absolutely want our leading nations to break records, break barriers, lead and have something to aspire to and learn from. What we want It is the sharing of that knowledge, and for others, all boats rise together.”
In 2019, England became the first women’s team to go professional.
Meanwhile, the Allianz Premier 15s, where all of the current Red Roses teams play, continue to set the benchmark for domestic competition. In June, Football Federation Australia announced plans to invest £220 million into the women’s game over the next 10 years, with Prem 15 aiming to “become the first women’s professional rugby league in all aspects of the game”.
The last bidding phase is underway for clubs who would like to be part of the upcoming first division tournament. They will undergo rigorous scrutiny to ensure they can meet the increasing standards of ‘significant investment’, including improvements to coaching staff, marketing and flight delivery for the 2023/24 season.
England’s success was also the result of an enviably full schedule of international Tests, which included winning an 18th Six Nations title this year.
Horrocks is confident of launching a new global competition next October in which the 16-team squad, from WXV’s three tiers, will showcase more of the world’s best talent and be a key part of the 2025 World Cup qualification process, as well as bidding. Critical playing time to develop teams against balanced opposition.
Horrocks said detailed plans and hosts for the competition, backed by an initial £6.4m investment in the Rugby World Championship, would be announced “in the coming weeks so that everyone has a clean rink”.
“This will provide, very importantly, that each union has six Test matches at a high level. It is probably one of our biggest areas of investment over the next couple of years.
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