An Ode to the WRWC

It has been a fantastic summer for English women’s sport, with the Lionesses roaring to victory in the Euros in July and now the Red Roses claiming the title of World Champions from a home Women’s Rugby World Cup. The Euros saw record-breaking attendance, with 657,291 tickets sold over the course of the tournament and the Lionesses’  victorious return to London also accompanied by unprecedented crowds lining The Mall. The opening game of the WRWC was an indicator that this tournament would follow the same growth with 42,723 people attending the opening game and Allianz Twickenham Stadium sold out to its 82,000 capacity before the whistle had blown on this first game in Sunderland. The increase in attendance is incredibly encouraging, however the numbers only tell one side of the story – with ‘story’ being the operative word. For each statistic and each game, there is a personal anecdote or connection within a sport whose audience is growing, while simultaneously retaining its close knit community.

Game One vs USA. 22^nd August, Sunderland. (62-7)

The World Cup opened on August 22^nd and the crowd of nearly 43,000 was the third highest attendance of any Red Roses match in history – until that point. Within this multitude was my own group of six, and down on the sidelines in her media bib was Danté Kim, an incredible sport photographer. I first met Danté last year when she came to Oxford to work on a pre-Varsity photoshoot with the Women*s Blues and heard about her adventures on the sevens circuit. It was brilliant to see that success translating into World Cup commission from the USA Eagles as she worked to tell their story through the tournament with her distinctively dynamic images.

Left to right: "Scrum", winner of the Portrait category in Rugby Photographer of the year; the victorious 2023 women*s Blues after the Varsity Match; and her 2024 pre-Varsity photoshoot. All photos credit Dante K Photography.

Danté has been a rugby lover for years, and credits her own university experience at UCL for building both her love for the game and her career, which now includes accolades such as "Portrait" category in Rugby Photographer of the Year 2024 and working for the Argentinean national 7s team. She first began shooting at rugby games with the UCL/KCL Varsity and her Instagram (and this post specifically) often pays tribute to the importance of student rugby. As always with Danté, this acknowledgment is also visual, as she wears her purple UCL Varsity top on big game days to acknowledge her roots. This understanding of the importance of grassroots and the individual is obvious in her work as her shooting and editing focus on the people at the centre of the images. Her work with Below the Shoulder (a clothing brand established by players) and the crowds of fans at the stadium before, during, and after the final is another example of her dedication to visual storytelling. Please do check out her Instagram to see what I mean.

Game Two vs Samoa. 30^th August, Northampton. (92-3)

Over the course of the pool stages, the BBC reported 7.1 million spectators, more than the entire 2022 tournament at 3.7 million and demonstrating the saying that women’s sport is a movement, not a moment. This growing popularity (up to 12 million over the course of the whole tournament) is complemented by the growing popularity of the players themselves.

Many players are using social media to communicate directly with fans and establish their own brands, bypassing traditional media and its limitations. Ilona Maher is the most visible example of this: the most followed rugby player in the world (male or female) and commercialising her signature red lipstick through a partnership with Maybelline as well as merch with her branding: ‘Beast, Beauty, Brains’. Ellie Boatman (England and GB Sevens & Ealing Trailfinders player) also uses her platform as an opportunity to be honest about the realities of elite sport. The first game of the World Cup saw her posting about the importance of female role models in sport with the phrase “if you can see it, you can be it” and a young girl who also has the surname Boatman wearing Ellie’s Commonwealth Games shirt.

However, the day before the second game saw her using social media to illustrate the reality behind the glamour of elite sport with a post titled “All the lows you wouldn’t have seen along the way”. Ellie discusses struggling with disordered eating, selection decisions, and injury and talks about how important it is to recognise the “person and story behind every athlete and rugby player”. The stories behind the statistics are compelling because they push us to look beyond the shirt to see the player as a human and social media is proving to be a sure-fire way for players to communicate directly with fans.

Game Three vs Australia. 6^th September, Brighton. (47-7)

The third game saw the tournament head south - though not quite down under - to Brighton. This game was Australia’s last chance to qualify for the quarter-finals, needing to gain more points than the USA Eagles to finish ahead of them in Pool A. Their desire for points was immediately obvious, with Adiana Talakai crossing the line in the sixth minute and Samantha Wood adding the two-point conversion. CAA Portas’ reflections on the World Cup found that the tournament’s on-pitch quality rose in line with its popularity with a thirty percent increase in tries per match (9.2) from 2022 and that the average ball-in-play time was approximately two minutes higher than the Men’s 2023 World Cup.

Behind this increase in entertainment value is long-term investment in grassroots rugby, including from individual Red Roses. After growing up in Oxfordshire, Maud Muir first came to OURFC as one of the panellists for a Women in Sport event held in November 2022. After interviewing her for the panel, I saw her again at Chinnor RFC as part of the Red Roses journey to the Six Nations and ahead of the home World Cup, making appearances in various clubs around the country through the RFU’s ‘Love Rugby’ initiative.

This commitment to the next generation was only reinforced after bringing home the Cup, with RugbyFest hitting clubs around the country in the first weekend of October and including Maud’s return to Chinnor. This time, the Women*s Blues met her there as they helped encourage the next generation to get involved on and off the pitch. 150 local girls in Years 5 and 6 were invited to hear from the Blues and Maud Muir, followed by a Q&A session with the World Champion (gold medal included). The players then went to speak to the different tables, answering questions in smaller groups and discussing the values of playing a team sport and training. Before heading out to try playing rugby, the girls took part in confidence clinics to discuss the things on and off the pitch that can make them confident, as well as ways to empower each other through celebrating small wins and cheering each other on. Whether playing in front of nearly 82,000 fans or having one friend cheer you on, this Women’s Rugby World Cup and the Red Roses are sharing with the next generation the tools to support friends and teammates.

Game Four vs Scotland, quarter-final. 14^th September, Bristol. (40-8)

The quarter-final in Bristol’s Ashton Gate Stadium saw a sell-out crowd of 25,295, almost doubling the 13,253 that attended the last home final at the Twickenham Stoop in 2010 (then a world record for a women’s international game). Alongside the importance of human stories increasing the profile of women’s sports, collaborations with sponsors and increased funding is essential. The Red Roses are leading the way with partnerships with big names independent from the men’s England team, as demonstrated by their partnership with Barbie. This relationship with Barbie is centred around inspiring and providing for young girls, maintaining the essence of women’s rugby: inclusion.

Since the end of the World Cup, Barbie also celebrated International Day of the Girl with “the new class of Barbie role models”: Ilona Maher (USA), Ellie Kildunne (England)​, Portia Woodman-Wickliffe (NZ)​, and Nassira Konde (France). Fans in the comments were quick to spot Kildunne’s Barbie boots mirroring the pair she has designed and released with Canterbury, the first pair of rugby boots designed by a female player. As last year’s World Rugby 15s Player of the Year, Kildunne is a good choice as Asahi’s official ambassador, becoming the face of their affiliation with the World Cup.

These various sponsorship deals demonstrate the growing appreciation of women’s sport as an investment opportunity for brands, Other businesses are growing through identifying the existing gaps for female athletes, demonstrated by the pop-up shop, Style of Our Own, on Regent Street this summer. The shop promotes brands catering to women in sport, like IDA, who design football boots for women’s feet and bodies (rather than the typical approach of “shrink it and pink it”) and are coming out with a rugby boot for next year’s Six Nations. As women’s sport continues its movement (not moment), the professional opportunities are as gripping as the stories.

Game Five vs France, semi-final. 20^th September, Bristol. (35-17)

After finishing third in the last World Cup, France would have to defeat England to find themselves in the final. The last match up between the two teams saw England come out clearly on top, but there was only one point between them in the Six Nations face-off for champion in April (43-42). It would be understandable if the French heads weren’t quite in the game following their contentious previous match against Ireland: flanker Axelle Berthoumieu was handed a nine-match suspension for biting Aoife Wafer and co-captain Manaé Feleu was ruled out of the rest of the competition with a two-match suspension for a high tackle.

In addition to sharing the captaincy, Feleu and Ménager also share the pitch with their sisters. While Romane Ménager was ineligible for selection for this World Cup due to repeated concussions, Teani took to the pitch with her sister for this tournament. As remarkable as it seems to have two sets of sisters in the same national team, France wasn’t the only World Cup side harnessing familial harmony. Wales (Gwenllian & Alaw Pyrs and Branwen & Nel Metcalfe) and Fiji (Setaita & Adi Salaseini Railumu and Keleni Marawa & Karalaini Naisewa) also sport double trouble, with Samoan twins (Christabelle & Demielle Onesemo-Tuilaepa), Australian youngsters (Faitala & Manu'a Moleka), a New Zealand duo (Alana and Chelsea Bremner), and Scottish set (Elliann & Rhea Clarke) rounding out to a total of ten sets of sisters in World Cup squads. When you take into account sisters who used to play together, like Fran & Alex Matthews, the numbers jump yet further to demonstrate that women’s rugby is a family business, with a wealth of stories to be told.

Game Six vs Canada, final. 27^th September, London (Twickenham). (33-13)

In the run up to the 2022 World Cup, the Red Roses were breaking their own world record for the most international rugby matches won consecutively each game, before a heart-breaking loss at the final hurdle against New Zealand in the first defeat in thirty games. The clock reset as soon as the journey to a home World Cup victory began, with their current winning streak (and new record) standing at 32 matches, including the latest triumph over Canada to become World Champions. One of the biggest stories of this competition has been this Canada side, with previous England World Cup winning captain, Katy Daley-Mclean telling Radio Two: “You see how well-resourced some nations are, and then you have fairy tales. Canada are a fairy tale.”

Walking out onto the pitch for their semi-final against New Zealand, Canada faced six-time champions who had not lost a World Cup match for eleven years and only two, ever. To get to this game, arguably the best played in the tournament, the Canadian team were forced to run a fundraising drive (Mission: Win Rugby World Cup) which raised £530,000 (C$1m). Rugby Canada’s website explains that its CEO met with the head coach, Kevin Rouet, at the beginning of the season to outline their ideal “training and preparation schedule” to send “the best-ever prepared Canadian team to a Rugby World Cup” at a cost of $3.6 million. The union, a “non-profit National Sport Organization” then contributed $2.6 million, the most it has ever been able to fund a high-performance team. Members of both the team and organisation have recognised the impact of this investment as it took Canada to the final and demonstrated the country’s support of its women’s rugby team. As women’s rugby continues to grow, addressing the gap in funding between men’s and women’s teams and player salaries is a step to a successful and sustainable future long-term, ensuring the quality of both the game and players’ lives.

Next Steps

I hope that these stories go some way to illustrate the importance of both community and the individual in sport and women’s rugby. The growth we have seen in this World Cup is amazing and as we look to the future of the game, it’s more important than ever to keep showing up and continue the work. Going to PWR matches and supporting the Women*s Blues at Major Stanley’s and Varsity are easy first steps to facilitating the growth of the game, get your tickets now and get to see both matches.