The 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup was the eighth edition of the
Women's Rugby World Cup
The Rugby World Cup is the women's rugby union world championship which is organised by World Rugby. The first Rugby World Cup for women was held in 1991, but it was not until the 1998 tournament that the tournament received official backing ...
and was held in
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
in August 2017.
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
became the 2017 champions by beating
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
41–32 in
the final
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...
on 26 August. Matches were held in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
and
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...
. The pool stages were held at
University College Dublin
University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...
with the semi finals and finals held at
Queen's University and
Kingspan Stadium
Kingspan Group plc is a building materials company based in Ireland trading in over 70 countries with 159 factories employing over 15,000 people. The company operates with five divisions; Insulated Panels, Insulation, Light & Air, Water & Energy, ...
in Belfast.
The tournament took place three rather than four years after the previous Women's Rugby World Cup because
World Rugby
World Rugby is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international rug ...
wanted to move away from clashing with other events. The event returned to a four-year cycle after 2017.
The 2017 tournament set attendance records for a Women's World Cup. The tournament drew 45,412 fans over 30 matches. The final was played in front of a crowd of 17,115, and the pool matches sold out.
This was the last edition of the tournament under the "Women's Rugby World Cup" name. On 21 August 2019,
World Rugby
World Rugby is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international rug ...
announced that all future World Cups, whether for men or women, would be officially titled as the "Rugby World Cup", distinguished only by year and not by gender. As such, the 2021 edition in New Zealand will bear the title of "
Rugby World Cup 2021".
Bidding process
On 2 March 2015, it was announced that the
Irish Rugby Football Union
The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) ( ga, Cumann Rugbaí na hÉireann) is the body managing rugby union in the island of Ireland (both Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland). The IRFU has its head office at 10/12 Lansdowne Road and home ...
had submitted a bid to host to Women's
Rugby World Cup
The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb E ...
in August 2017. The Irish bid was the only one made to host the event. On 13 May 2015 it was announced that
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
would host the event in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
and
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...
.
On 4 June 2015 it was announced that Garrett Tubridy had been appointed tournament director for the event.
Qualifying
Ireland, the host nation, had already qualified automatically by finishing in the top seven teams at the
2014
File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...
tournament before being announced as hosts. A further six teams (England, Canada, France, New Zealand, USA and Australia) qualified automatically as top seven finishers at the 2014 tournament. Italy and Wales qualified as the top two teams across the 2015 and 2016 Women's Six Nations excluding England, France, and Ireland. The remaining three qualifiers (Hong Kong, Spain and Japan) were determined by the end of 2016.
Qualified teams
Match officials
In March 2017,
World Rugby
World Rugby is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international rug ...
announced the 9 referees and 5 assistant referees for the tournament.
In August 2017, it was announced that
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
referee
Joy Neville
Joy Neville (born on 24 July 1983) is a former Ireland women's rugby union international and a current rugby union referee. As a player, Neville represented Ireland at both the 2006 and 2010 Women's Rugby World Cups. In 2009 Neville captaine ...
would adjudicate the
final
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...
.
;Referees (9)
* Tim Baker
*
Aimee Barrett-Theron
Aimee Patricia Barrett-Theron (born 27 June 1987) is a South African rugby union former player, and currently a referee on South Africa's Premier Panel.
Playing career
She could play as a fullback, centre or fly-half and played in various fo ...
*
Graham Cooper
*
Sara Cox
Sara Joanne Cyzer (née Cox; born 13 December 1974) is an English broadcaster. She presented ''Radio 1 Breakfast'' on BBC Radio 1 from 3 April 2000 until 19 December 2003. Since January 2019 she now hosts the BBC Radio 2 drivetime show, Monday ...
* Sean Gallagher
*
Claire Hodnett
Claire Hodnett is an English rugby union referee and solicitor. She was the first woman to be appointed to the Rugby Football Union's national panel of Rugby union match officials, referees and was the first woman to be a Rugby union match official ...
*
Joy Neville
Joy Neville (born on 24 July 1983) is a former Ireland women's rugby union international and a current rugby union referee. As a player, Neville represented Ireland at both the 2006 and 2010 Women's Rugby World Cups. In 2009 Neville captaine ...
*
Alhambra Nievas
Alhambra Nievas González (born 9 August 1983) is a former Spain women's rugby union international and a current rugby union referee. Nievas refereed the women's final at the 2016 Summer Olympics. In 2016 she also served as an assistant referee ...
*
Amy Perrett
Amy Perrett (born 1990 or 1991) is an Australian professional rugby union referee. She has refereed at the Women's Rugby World Cup, including the final in 2014, as well as the Women's Sevens World Series and Summer Olympics.
Early life
Amy Pe ...
;Assistants (5)
*
Beatrice Benvenuti
Maria Beatrice Benvenuti (born 1993) is an Italian rugby union referee.
Benvenuti has refereed at the 2016 Olympic Games, the Women's Rugby World Cup in 2014 and 2017 and the Women's Six Nations Championship in 2018 and 2019. She has also refere ...
* Rose Labreche
* Marie Lematte
* Helen O'Reilly
* Ian Tempest
Squads
Pool stage
The pool draw took place on 9 November 2016 at Belfast.
Each pool was a
single round-robin of six games, in which each team played one match against each of the other teams in the same pool. Teams were awarded four points for a win, two points for a draw, one point for a loss by one to seven points, and none for a defeat by more than seven points. A team scoring four or more
tries in one match scored a bonus point.
The tournament comprised 12 teams in three pools of four with the pool winners plus the best runner-up progressing to the semi-finals.
All times are local,
Western European Summer Time
Western European Summer Time (WEST, UTC+01:00) is a summer daylight saving time scheme, 1 hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time and Coordinated Universal Time. It is used in:
* the Canary Islands
* Portugal (including Madeira but not the Azores)
* t ...
(
UTC+1
UTC+01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in:
*Central European Time
*West Africa Time
*Western European Summer Time
** B ...
).
Pool A
Pool B
Pool C
Finals
Knockout Rankings
At the completion of the pool stage, teams were ranked first according to their position within their pool (positions 1 to 3 were the pool winners, positions 4 to 6 were the pool runners up, etc.) and then by competition points. The top four teams progressed to the tournament semi-finals, teams ranked 5–8 progressed to the 5th to 8th play-offs, and the teams ranked 9–12 progressed to the 9th to 12th play-offs.
Tie breakers
If teams were tied on pool points they were ranked by rules applied in the following order –
1. The team that won the match between the two teams was ranked first (does not apply to teams in different pools)
2. If the teams were still level, the difference between points scored and points conceded was used to rank the teams
3. Difference between tries scored and tries conceded was used to rank the teams
4. Most points scored
5. Most tries scored
6. Coin toss
Play-offs: 9th to 12th
----
;Ninth to twelfth semifinals
;Eleventh place playoff
;Ninth place playoff
Play-offs 5th to 8th
----
;Fifth to eighth semifinals
;Seventh place playoff
;Fifth place playoff
Finals
The team ranked first after the pool stages played the team ranked fourth and the team ranked second played the team ranked third.
----
Semifinals
Third place playoff
Final
Final classification
Broadcasting
*:
Foxtel
Foxtel is an Australian pay television company—operating in cable television, direct broadcast satellite television, and IPTV streaming services. It was formed in April 2018, superseding an earlier company from 1995. The service was establi ...
*:
TSN and
RDS
*:
Eurosport
Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through Warner Bros. Discovery Sports#Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe properties, its international sports unit, it operates two ...
and
France Télévisions
France Télévisions (; stylized since 2018 as ) is the French national public television broadcaster. It is a state-owned company formed from the integration of the public television channels France 2 (formerly Antenne 2) and France 3 (former ...
*:
Eir Sport
Eir Sport (stylised as eir Sport; formerly Setanta Sports) was a group of Irish television sports channels operated by Eircom Sport Limited, a subsidiary of Eir. In December 2015, Eir purchased original Setanta Sports operations in the Republic ...
and
RTÉ
(RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...
*:
RTVE
The Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española, S.A. (; ), known as Radiotelevisión Española or RTVE, is the state-owned public corporation that assumed in 2007 the indirect management of the Spanish public radio and television service know ...
*:
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
*:
NBC Sports
NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its d ...
See also
*
Rugby World Cup
The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb E ...
*
Rugby World Cup Sevens
Rugby World Cup Sevens (RWCS) is the quadrennial world championship of rugby sevens, a variant of rugby union. Organised by World Rugby, it currently consists of men's and women's tournaments, and is the highest level of competition in the sport ...
References
External links
Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:World Cup
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
2017 rugby union tournaments for national teams
2017 in women's rugby union
2017 in Irish women's sport
International women's rugby union competitions hosted by Ireland
International sports competitions hosted by University College Dublin
August 2017 sports events in Europe
2017–18 in Irish rugby union
2017 in Northern Ireland sport
2010s in Dublin (city)
Sports competitions in Belfast
21st century in Belfast