2017 Women's Rugby World Cup


The 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup was the eighth edition of the Women's Rugby World Cup and was held in Ireland in August 2017. New Zealand became the 2017 champions by beating England 41–32 in the final on 26 August. Matches were held in Dublin and Belfast. The pool stages were held at University College Dublin with the semi finals and finals held at Queen's University and Kingspan Stadium in Belfast.
The tournament took place three rather than four years after the previous Women's Rugby World Cup because World Rugby wanted to move away from clashing with other events. The event will return 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 proved to be the final edition of the tournament under the "Women's Rugby World Cup" name. On 21 August 2019, World Rugby 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 sex or 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 had submitted a bid to host to Women's Rugby World Cup in August 2017. The Irish bid was the only one made to host the event. On 13 May 2015 it was announced that Ireland would host the event in Dublin and Belfast.
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 tournament before being announced as hosts. A further six teams 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 were determined by the end of 2016.

Qualified teams

AmericasEuropeOceaniaAsia

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    • Match officials

    At the end of March 2017, World Rugby announced fourteen match officials: nine referees and five assistants.
    ;Referees
    ;Assistants

    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.

    Pool A

    TeamPldWDLTFPFPA+/−BPPts
    33003521317+196315
    32011911848+7019
    310295174−2315
    3003215258−24300

    Pool B

    TeamPldWDLTFPFPA+/−BPPts
    33002715944+115315
    3201159359+34311
    3102427107−8004
    3003533102−6900

    Pool C

    TeamPldWDLTFPFPA+/−BPPts
    33002314119+122214
    320174852−408
    310284682−3626
    3003743125−8200

    Finals

    Knockout Rankings

    At the completion of the pool stage, teams were ranked first according to their position within their pool 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.
    Qualified for semi-finals
    Qualified for 5th to 8th playoffs
    Qualified for 9th to 12th playoffs

    RankTeamPosPldWDLPFPA+/−BPPts
    1A1330021317+196315
    2B1330015944+115315
    3C1330014119+122214
    4B232019359+34311
    5A2320111848+7019
    6C232014852−408
    7C331024682−3626
    8A331025174−2315
    9B3310227107−8004
    10B4300333102−6900
    11C4300343125−8200
    12A4300315258−24300

    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

    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