Rugby World Cup Future Hosts through to 2033
ENGLAND – Rugby World Cup 2025 (WOMEN’S)
The birthplace of the game of rugby is no stranger to Rugby World Cups, in either the men’s or women’s competition.
England co-hosted the second edition of the men’s Rugby World Cup in 1991, sharing the honour with the rest of the Home Nations and France.
Led by World Rugby Hall of Fame inductee Will Carling, England reached the final only to narrowly lose 12-6 to Australia.
Rugby World Cup returned to England in 2010, as the cream of the women’s game came together.
Once again England reached the final and came up just short, losing 13-10 to New Zealand’s Black Ferns at the Twickenham Stoop.
The first men’s tournament to be exclusively hosted by England was in 2015. It was a spectacular success in every way other than England becoming the first host nation to exit at the pool stages.
AUSTRALIA - Rugby World Cup 2027 (MEN’S) AND Rugby World Cup 2029 (WOMEN’S)
Australians can look forward to a golden period of rugby with confirmation that the men’s and women’s tournaments in 2027 and 2029 respectively will be hosted in the country.
Australia will now host the British and Irish Lions in 2025, followed by the Commonwealth Games in 2026, back-to-back Rugby World Cups and then the summer Olympics in Brisbane in 2032.
Rugby World Cup 2003 in Australia fell in a similar window in terms of sporting excitement, with the Sydney Olympics and the 2001 Lions tour still fresh in everybody’s minds.
From humble beginnings when Australia co-hosted the inaugural men’s tournament with New Zealand in 1987, Rugby World Cup 2003 was on another level and the only downside for locals was the Wallabies’ extra-time loss to England in the final.
It will be the first time Australia hosts the women’s tournament, having missed out to New Zealand for the 2021 edition.
USA – Rugby World Cup 2031 (MEN’S) AND Rugby World Cup 2033 (WOMEN’S)
Rugby is one of the fastest-growing sports in the USA and by hosting not one but two tournaments, in 2031 and 2033, even more of the population will get the chance to savour its unique appeal.
A Rugby World Cup has been in hosted North America before – Edmonton in Alberta, Canada, staged the women’s tournament in 2006 – but never in the United States, where there is now a fully professional domestic men’s league, Major League Rugby (MLR).
In terms of on-field success, the US Women’s Eagles were trailblazers in winning the inaugural women’s competition in 1991 and reaching the final in 1994.and 1998.
While the men’s team have yet to make it to the knockout stages, the ongoing success of MLR will help develop the Eagles into a team to be feared by the time the world’s best reach their shores.
