It’s always exciting when England hosts a World Cup in any sport. Even more thrills can be expected when England are actually the favourites to lift the trophy. That’s the case with the upcoming Women’s Rugby Union World Cup which gets underway on August 22.
Online bookmakers have England at just 1/3 to become world champions for only the second time in their history. In fact, it’ll be more of a shock if they fail to win the final which takes place at Twickenham on September 27. Let’s take a look ahead to the tournament and just why England are such short favourites to win.
It was back in 2014 that England beat Canada to win the World Cup. The Red Roses have come close to a third win with the final reached in the two last tournaments, losing on both occasions to the Black Ferns of New Zealand.
Perhaps it would have been a different story three years ago when losing to New Zealand by just three points. That was despite playing most of the match with only 14 players after Lydia Thompson was sent off in the 17th minute. That was the last match that England lost, a run of 27 games.
England have reached the last six World Cup finals. It’s 1/12 that they do so again in September. Online bookmakers listed here have special offers and odds of 6/1 on them not making it to the final. Will it again be New Zealand that they face? The defending champions are 4/7 to be in the final and 5/4 to miss out on the final for only the second time since 1994.
A third successive win for New Zealand over England in the final is 7/2. If you believe it’ll be England who finally beat the Black Ferns in a title decider, the odds are 20/21.
England’s final warm-up match saw them travel to France (12/1 to win the World Cup) on August 9. They continued their winning streak with a comfortable 40-6 victory. That made it 16 successive wins for England against France. The previous match was in this year’s Six Nations tournament. England only won that match played at Twickenham by a single point to again lift the title.
It was a significant statement for the Red Roses. The route to the final begins in Pool A against Australia, the USA and Samoa. Their opening match is against the USA at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light on August 22. England last played the Americans in 2024 and ran out 61-21 winners.
You won’t get rich betting on England winning their pool as the odds are 1/250. Australia are 14/1 second favourites in the pool, ahead of the USA at 18/1 and Samoa 500/1. The top two in the pool go into the quarter-finals.
If England win the group then they are likely to face familiar opponents in the quarter-finals. It’s expected that they will be up against either Scotland (250/1 to be world champions) or Wales (300/1 outsiders), one of whom should fill the runners-up spot in Pool B behind Canada.
England beat both of them in this year’s Six Nations with a combined total of 126 points scored and just 19 conceded. If they were to only finish second in Pool A, their most likely opponents in the last eight would be Canada (13/2 to lift the trophy).
The semi-finals are expected to see England take on France and that’s why the August 9 win was so important to achieve. The dominance the Red Roses had in the maul in that match is unlikely to be turned around the next time they face each other.
More rodeo celebrations when scoring a try look to be on their way. The last nine tournaments have seen France fail just once to reach the last four. They are still waiting to play in their first final and that wait looks like it will continue.
New Zealand are 5/2 to win the trophy but their dominance of women’s rugby union appears to have come to an end. Their crown has been slipping in the past year or so with two losses inflicted on them by England. They also lost to Canada and Ireland in 2024 and a three-peat is going to be difficult to achieve.
The Black Ferns are in Pool C along Ireland, Spain and Fiji. South Africa are expected to be their quarter-final opponents with Canada likely to be faced in the last four. It could be a tough game against Canada if that is who they face. Canada drew with them this year after that 2024 victory.
After the success of the Lionesses in the recent Women’s European Championships, there are high hopes indeed of a global triumph in September.
