England hope women's 2025 rugby World Cup will attract world record crowd after ticket sale triumph

By Paul Eddison, Sportsbeat

Fans were queuing for tickets for the 2025 Rugby World Cup in England as if they were Oasis tickets according to World Rugby’s chief of women’s rugby Sally Horrox.

Tickets for the final of next year’s event at Twickenham Stadium, as well as the opening game of the tournament in Sunderland, went on sale in an initial release, with more than 55,000 sold.

Among those queuing online for tickets was Horrox, with all available tickets in the presale release sold for the final.

The hope is that Twickenham will be sold out for that game, which would mean a world record crowd for a women’s game – with the current mark set during the 2023 Women’s Six Nations.

Speaking about the appetite for tickets, Horrox said: "The ticket sales are going tremendously. I was in the queue and it was like queuing for Oasis tickets. I was there watching the numbers go down as I tried to buy tickets for my friends and family.”

The tournament will be played across eight different venues, with the remaining tickets set to go on sale once the six remaining places have been secured during the WXV competition which is serving as final qualification.

The venues range from Sandy Park in Exeter in the south west, to the Stadium of Light in Sunderland in the north east, with Sarah Massey, the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 managing director excited at the interest in the tournament.

Massey said: “I think we’ll see something very different. We know what’s happened with women’s sport, not just women’s rugby, in terms of crowds, facilities and services, so I think we’ll see something very different, particularly across packing our stands.

“There’ll be packed stands, there’ll be engaged fans, there’ll be a much greater fan experience that we will create both in the cities and across each of the regions.

“The fact we’re going across to eight different locations is already something incredibly different from previous World Cups — 95 per cent of the population will be within a two-hour travel time of a venue.”

As well as an increase in attendances, the 2025 World Cup is being seen as an opportunity to improve standards both on and off the pitch.

That involves greater support for the players to ensure that they are put in optimum conditions to succeed, while there will also be an increased focus on the wellbeing of match officials.

Massey added: "We've always put as one of our key five commitments as making sure we are providing the performance environment that allows our players to thrive and perform at their very best.

“The big change we have implemented from New Zealand is that teams will have their individual team bases, so they won't be sharing team bases. They will have an individual team base which includes a hotel, an outdoor training venue, an indoor training venue and a swimming pool.”