The 2010 Women's Rugby World Cup was the sixth 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 England. The

International Rugby Board 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 ru ...

Executive Committee selected the host union following a recommendation from the Rugby World Cup Limited board after considering bids from the Rugby Football Union and the German Rugby Union – it had been England's third successive bid after being rejected in 2002 and 2006. The tournament was again being organised by the

(IRB) as opposed to the host union, and included five matches for all teams played on 20, 24, 28 August and 1 and 5 September. In May 2009 it was announced that the semi final, 3rd place play off and final would take place at

The Stoop Twickenham Stoop Stadium (informally referred to as The Stoop) is a sports stadium located in south-west London, England. The stadium is home to Harlequins rugby union team, who play in the Gallagher Premiership. The stadium has a capacity ...

and not

Twickenham Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the boroug ...

as had previously been suggested. Pool games were held at the Surrey Sports Park in Guildford. Interest in the tournament was far higher than had been anticipated. It was broadcast to 127 countries and all 2,500 seats at the opening two days of pool games were sold out, as was the third day despite the capacity being raised to 3,200. The semi-finals attracted over 6,000 spectators, while the final drew a crowd of 13,253 – a world record for a women's rugby international – and well as a worldwide TV audience of (according to IRB figures) half a million. The competition was won by

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 ...

who beat

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 ...

13–10 in the final. Three tries from the tournament were shortlisted for the IRB's "Try of the Year" award.

Bidding process

The

Rugby Football Union for Women The Rugby Football Union for Women (RFUW) was the governing body for women's rugby union in England. As of 2014 the RFUW and Rugby Football Union, RFU combined to be one National Governing Body. The headquarters are at Twickenham Stadium, Londo ...

and the Rugby Football Union along with

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

and

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

made bids to host the 2010 Women's Rugby World Cup. On 23 September, Rugby World Cup Limited Board chairman,

Bernard Lapasset Bernard Lapasset (born 20 October 1947) is a French rugby administrator who was Chairman of the World Rugby from 2008 to 2016. He previously served as President of the French Federation of Rugby Union from 1991 to May 2008, when Pierre Camou, ...

, announced that England would host the World Cup at various venues across West London.

Qualifying

New Zealand, England and France qualified directly as the top three teams from the

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

. Wales and Ireland qualified as second and third place finishers in the

2009 Six Nations Championship The 2009 Six Nations Championship, known as the RBS 6 Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 10th Six Nations Championship, and the 115th international championship, an annual rugby union competition contested by the six major European national t ...

. Scotland and Sweden qualified as the top two teams from the 2009 European Trophy. The United States, Canada and South Africa qualified directly as the only teams from their region. Kazakhstan qualified after winning the 2009 ARFU Women's Championship. Australia qualified as the second Oceania representative.

Qualified Teams

Tickets and sponsorship

Tickets had been available since 22 March 2010 and they could be purchased online at

Ticketmaster Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc. is an American ticket sales and distribution company based in Beverly Hills, California with operations in many countries around the world. In 2010, it merged with Live Nation under the name Live Nation Enter ...

or by phone, with an innovative ticketing structure based on some tournament passes and individual match day tickets.
Thirteen matches were broadcast live through a platform provided by host broadcaster

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

in 127 territories to a potential audience of 227 million homes, smashing the 2006 World Cup benchmark in Canada (75 territories and a potential reach of 97 million homes). The programming hours was increased from 60 in 2006 to 220 in this edition.
The commercial partners of the tournament were

Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine give ...

Heineken Heineken Lager Beer ( nl, Heineken Pilsener), or simply Heineken () is a pale lager beer with 5% alcohol by volume produced by the Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. Heineken beer is sold in a green bottle with a red star. History On 15 Feb ...

, the

Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation founded in 1892, best known as the producer of Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company also manufactures, sells, and markets other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups ...

's sports drink

Powerade Powerade is a sports drink created, manufactured and marketed by The Coca-Cola Company. Its primary competitor is Gatorade, owned by PepsiCo. History In 1988, Powerade became the official sports drink of the Olympics, alongside Aquarius, ano ...

Holiday Inn Holiday Inn is an American chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia. and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson, who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee that year. The chain was a division ...

, British rugby equipment supplier Rhino Rugby, University of Surrey and

UK National Lottery The National Lottery is the state-franchised national lottery established in 1994 in the United Kingdom. It is regulated by the Gambling Commission, and is currently operated by Camelot Group, to which the licence was granted in 1994, 2001 and ...

Squads

Match officials

In December 2009, the IRB announced a panel of 14 match officials for the tournament, including seven world's leading female referees and three specialist assistant referees with previous Women's Rugby World Cup experience.
England's Clare Daniels officiated the opening match between

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, while Australian Sarah Corrigan refereed the final between

and

. *

Sarah Corrigan Sarah Corrigan (born 1980) is an Australian international rugby union referee. While going to Daramalan College in Canberra and playing rugby sevens, she decided to do a referee course, encouraged by her father. After the first appearance in a ...

Clare Daniels Clare Daniels (born ) is an English international rugby union referee and is the world's most capped female Test referee. She has played scrum-half for Tor RFC in Glastonbury for a few years in the late 1990s before the team disbanded and Dani ...

Gabriel Lee In Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Gabriel (); Greek: grc, Γαβριήλ, translit=Gabriḗl, label=none; Latin: ''Gabriel''; Coptic: cop, Ⲅⲁⲃⲣⲓⲏⲗ, translit=Gabriêl, label=none; Amharic: am, ገብ� ...

* Barbara Guastini *

Joyce Henry Joyce Henry was an American politician and educator. Henry lived in Bloomington, Minnesota with her husband and family. She received her bachelor's degree in music from Northwestern College. Henry was an office manager and homemaker. She served i ...

* Debbie Innes * Nicky Inwood * David Keane * Kerstin Ljungdahl * Javier Mancuso * Andrew McMenemy * Sébastien Minery * Dana Teagarden * Sherry Trumbull

Format

The competition was contested over 16 days and 30 matches between 12 nations, divided into three pools of four teams. The tournament began on 20 August at Surrey Sports Park with a match between Canada and Scotland and ended with the final held at

Twickenham Stoop Twickenham Stoop Stadium (informally referred to as The Stoop) is a sports stadium located in south-west London, England. The stadium is home to Harlequins rugby union team, who play in the Gallagher Premiership. The stadium has a capacity ...

on 5 September between England and New Zealand.

Pool stage

Defending champions

, hosts and 2006 runners-up

and 2006 bronze winners

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

all ranked top seeds in their pool. Teams played each other in each pool on a round robin basis, while match points were awarded according to the

international standards international standard is a technical standard developed by one or more international standards organizations. International standards are available for consideration and use worldwide. The most prominent such organization is the International Org ...

: 4 points for a win, 2 points for a draw, 1 point for scoring 4 or more tries or for losing by 7 or less than 7 points.
At the end of the pool stage, the teams in a pool were ranked according to their cumulative match points. If two or more teams had been level, the following criteria would have been used in this order until one of the teams could be determined as the higher ranked: *the winner of the match between the two tied teams; *the team with the best points difference; *the team with the best tries difference; *the team with more scored points; *the team with more scored tries; *a toss of coin.

Ranking finals

The teams were seeded based on the position in which they finished in their respective pools and the points scored during the pool stage. The three pool winners and the best runner-up went through to the semi-finals. The other two runners-up and the best two 3rd-place finishers went into a sort of a competition for 5th place, whilst the bottom three teams competed for 9th place.
The ranking finals were set as it follows: *1st seed vs 4th seed; *2nd seed vs 3rd seed; *5th seed vs 8th seed; *6th Seed vs 7th seed; *9th seed vs 12th seed; *10th seed vs 11th seed.

Finals

If teams had been tied at full-time, the winner would have been determined through a 10-minutes extra time (the first team to score any points would have been declared the winner) or eventually a kicking competition (five players from each team would have kicked from three different points on the 22-metre line).

World Cup tournament

Pool stage

Pool A

Pool B

Pool C

Ranking finals

9th–12th place

=Semi-finals

=11th place match

=9th place match

5th–8th place

=Semi-finals

=7th place match

=5th place match

Semi-finals and Final

=Semi-finals

=3rd place match

=Final

Statistics

Teams

Individual leading point scorers

References

External links

Women's RWC official website

Women's RWC 2010 Qualifying
{{DEFAULTSORT:World Cup 2010 2010 rugby union tournaments for national teams International women's rugby union competitions hosted by England 2010–11 in English rugby union 2010 in women's rugby union August 2010 sports events in the United Kingdom September 2010 sports events in the United Kingdom

Bidding process

Qualifying

Qualified Teams

Tickets and sponsorship

Squads

Match officials

Format

Pool stage

Ranking finals

Finals

World Cup tournament

Pool stage

Pool A

Pool B

Pool C

Ranking finals

9th–12th place

=Semi-finals

=11th place match

=9th place match

5th–8th place

=Semi-finals

=7th place match

=5th place match

Semi-finals and Final

=Semi-finals

=3rd place match

=Final

Statistics

Teams

Individual leading point scorers

See also

References

External links