Women's Rugby World Cup

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The Women's Rugby World Cup is the premier international competition in rugby union for women. The tournament is organised by the sport's governing body the International Rugby Board (IRB). The championships are currently held every four years

The first Women's Rugby World Cup was held in 1991, and won by the United States. Though the 1991 tournament, along with the subsequent 1994 competition were not officially sanctioned by the IRB. The 1998 tournament held in the Netherlands was backed by the IRB. The current world champions are New Zealand.

1 History
2 Results
- 2.1 Tournaments
- 2.2 Performance of nations
3 Format
4 Media coverage
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] History

Prior to the first Women's Rugby World Cup officially sanctioned by the International Rugby Board (IRB) there had been three previous tournaments of a similar nature. The first of these was an event held in 1990 in New Zealand. Though not considered a World Cup, the tournament was referred to as the 'Rugby world cup Festival for Women', ^[1] or 'Rugger Fest'. The competition included the United States, the Netherland, the Soviet Union as well as a few other nations. The host, New Zealand, emerged as winners.

The first tournament referred to as the Women's Rugby World Cup was held in 1991 and hosted by Wales, yet fiscal reality and bad timing combined to take much shine off of the event, leading to minimal interest from local media. Many teams involved could not easily afford to participate, and the second men’s World Cup was being held in neighboring England, thus diverting much attention from the women’s game. Organising the event proved to be difficult, but it none the less broke new ground for the women's game. The tournament did exceed expectations.

Twelve countries were divided into four groups of three. The USA shocking all those involved, took the first championship with a 19-6 victory over England, while in the Plate competition for second place teams Canada prevailed over Spain 18-4. Following the first tournament it was decided to move the tournament schedule to the year prior to the next men's world cup – reducing the quadrennial cycle to just three years.

Following endorsement problems by the IRB, the second tournament, originally scheduled for Amsterdam ended up being moved to Scotland after some national unions pulled funding for team expenses. The Netherlands actually pulled out of hosting the tournament six weeks prior to the start. Many teams, ignoring the message being sent by their national bodies, raised their own finances – and this spirit convinced various rugby powers to organize the alternate competition in Scotland. Again only twelve countries competed, the English again met the USA in the final, though this time England emerged as winners.

The 1998 tournament received a huge boost in that it became fully backed by the (IRB), and was now considered an official world championship event. Amsterdam, Netherlands (who were to host an earlier world cup) hosted the largest ever tournament with all matches played at the new National Rugby Centre in the city’s west end and a record sixteen teams competing. With the official partnership with the IRB, their was a notable difference, particularly in media interest. New Zealand also competed for the first time, and defeated the USA in the final to claim their first world cup.

The next event was taken to Spain in 2002. The Black Ferns were single minded in the pursuit of world glory, crushing their opponents to take the title for the second time. The 2006 world cup took place in Edmonton, Canada, being the first women's world cup held in North America. The Black Ferns defeated England in the final to win their third successive World Cup title.

[edit] Results

[edit] Tournaments

Year	Host	Winner	Score	Runner-up	3rd place	Score	4th place
Year	Host	Final			Third place match
1991 Details	Wales	United States	19 - 6	England	France	Shared third	New Zealand
1994 Details	Scotland	England	38 - 23	United States	France	27 - 0	Wales
1998 Details	Netherlands	New Zealand	44 - 12	United States	England	31 - 15	Canada
2002 Details	Spain	New Zealand	19 - 9	England	France	41 - 7	Canada
2006 Details	Canada	New Zealand	25 - 17	England	France	17 - 8	Canada
2010 Details

[edit] Performance of nations

New Zealand - 3 titles
United States - 1 title
England - 1 title

[edit] Format

The current format splits the 12 participating nations into four pools of three teams. Each nation plays three games, after the completition of these rounds, a re-seeding process takes place. Nations are moved into divisions which are dictated by their respective overall tournament ranking.

[edit] Media coverage

As in many other women's sports the Women's World Cup receives far less television and media coverage than the men's equivalent. Many critics have attributed this toward the (IRB) for poor marketing and organisation of the tournament.^{[citation needed]} The tournament has grown a lot in the past 15 years however. The 2006 event in Canada is being broadcast in a large number of countries. To see broadcast times see the rwcwomens.com.

The matches are also being streamed live over the internet by 247.tv, see the 247.tv Women’s Rugby World Cup site for more details.