WXV is a women's international

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

competition that will be held annually, launched in 2023.The competition consists of three tiers, respectively named WXV 1, WXV 2, and WXV 3. Each tier consists of six teams divided into two pools and is run in a split pool format, where teams only face teams from the other pool.

Background

With the expansion of the

2025 Rugby World Cup The 2025 Rugby World Cup will be the tenth edition of the women's Rugby World Cup, as organized by World Rugby. It is scheduled to be held in England. It will be the second women's Rugby Union World Cup to be hosted by England, after the 2010 ed ...

from 12 to 16 teams, the test calendar was restructured, with the WXV serving to revolutionise the women's international landscape. WXV was announced on 16 March 2021 with the inaugural edition intended to begin in September 2022, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was pushed back to 2023 to accommodate the postponed

2021 Rugby World Cup The 2021 Rugby World Cup was the ninth staging of the women's Rugby World Cup, as organised by World Rugby. It was held from 8 October to 12 November 2022 in Auckland and Whangārei, New Zealand. It was originally scheduled to be held in 2021, ...

. World Rugby will be investing £6.4 million in the tournament, and It is expected to be played within an international window from September to October, except for Rugby World Cup years.

Format

Qualification

Teams can qualify through various regional competitions and both play-off and play-in fixtures for the three competition tiers. Each tier has designated regional slots allocated before the 2023 edition. From 2023 the allocation of the slots in tiers two and three may change based on the region of the champion team and the lowest-ranked team. The allocation of slots in tier one will only change from 2026. There is no guarantee that a team will play in the same tier as they did in the year before.

WXV 1

In both the inaugural and the upcoming 2024 WXV 1 the top three teams from that year's

Six Nations Championship The Six Nations Championship (known as the Guinness Six Nations for sponsorship reasons) is an annual international men's rugby union competition between the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The current champions ar ...

and Pacific Four Series qualified for WXV 1. From 2026, the bottom-ranked side's regional place will be relegated to WXV 2 and the top WXV 2 side's regional place will be promoted.

WXV 2

In 2023, the fourth-placed team from the

and Pacific Four Series qualified for WXV 2 alongside the champions of the

Oceania Rugby Women's Championship Oceania Rugby Women’s Championship is an international women's rugby union competition contested by women's national teams from Oceania. The current Champions is Fiji who claimed their third Oceania title at the Championship in New Zealand. H ...

, the

Asia Rugby Women's Championship The Asia Rugby Championship for women's national fifteen-a-side teams is a rugby union tournament that has been contested since 2006. Organised by Asia Rugby, there are currently two competition divisions. The championship is also the continental ...

, and the

Rugby Africa Women's Cup The Rugby Africa Women's Cup is an international women's rugby union competition contested by women's national teams from Africa. History Rugby Africa Women's Cup was initially launched in 2019. South Africa won the inaugural competition in Bra ...

. Additionally, the winner of a playoff between the 5th placed team in the Six Nations and the champions of the

Rugby Europe Women's Championship The Rugby Europe Women's Championship is an international competition contested between women's national teams who are members of Rugby Europe (known from 1999 to 2014 as FIRA - Association of European Rugby, and FIRA before that). The competition ...

secured a place. Starting in 2023, the champion of WXV 3 will have their regional place elevated to WXV 2, leading to the displacement of the regional place of the sixth-placed team, which will be relegated to WXV 3 for the following tournament (2024). From 2026 onwards, this process will also apply to the regional places of both the WXV 2 champion and the sixth-placed team in WXV 1.

WXV 3

In 2023, the sixth-placed team from the

, the runner-up in the playoff between the 5th placed team in the Six Nations and the champion of the

, the winner of a Play-in tournament between

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

and

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, along with the runners-up from the respective regional tournaments in Asia, Africa, and Oceania, qualified for WXV 3. Beginning in 2023, the champion of WXV 3 will see their regional place promoted to tier two, displacing the regional place of the sixth-placed WXV 2 team for the following tournament (2024). The team that is sixth-placed at the end of the tournament will have to compete in a playoff with the best non-competing side in the

World Rugby Rankings The World Rugby Rankings (formerly the IRB Rankings) is a ranking system for national teams in rugby union, managed by World Rugby, the sport's governing body. There are separate men's and women's rankings. The teams of World Rugby's member nation ...

to decide who will take the last place in WXV 3 for the following tournament.

Tournament

In 2023, all tiers used a cross-pool format. Teams are divided into two pools of teams from the same region if possible. Teams will only play the opposition in the other pool. WXV 3 was originally announced as a

round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament (or all-go-away-tournament) is a competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero ...

consisting of four teams. However, this was later revised to also be a six-team cross-pool competition.

Results

WXV 1

WXV 2

WXV 3

References

{{Women's rugby union Women's rugby union competitions for national teams World Rugby competitions Recurring sporting events established in 2023