Bok Women to know their World Cup rivals this week

NEWS: The Springbok Women will know who they will face in the World Cup in England next year when the pool draw takes place on Thursday, October 17.

South Africa became the sixth team to confirm their place at the Women’s World Cup 2025 in May this year when they beat Madagascar 46-17 to retain their Africa Women’s Cup title in style.

Since then South African Women have undergone a massive growth spurt in recent weeks.

The side has secured impressive wins over star-laden Bararians, Spain, and Japan in the WXV 2 tournament in Cape Town indicating that the Springbok Women have become a very competitive team on the international stage.

They also came close to snatching a draw against eventual WXV 2 champs Australia and were within one score of securing a famous win over Italy.

De Bruin’s team concluded the WXV 2 in fourth place, levelled on league points with Italy and above Wales, who both play in the Six Nations.

If you compare last year’s campaign to this year’s there have been loads of progress.

Pure vibes at the #BokWomen team photo 😂💚💛

Catch our girls in action tomorrow against Italy 🇮🇹#makeitcount #ettig pic.twitter.com/dsiPIAqhoh

— SA Women’s Rugby (@WomenBoks) October 11, 2024

All eyes will now turn to the World Cup draw on Thursday, marking a key milestone for the tournament, set to be the largest sporting event in England in 2025.

Following the draw, the match schedule will be released on Tuesday, October 22.

Back-to-back WXV 1 champions the Red Roses became the highest-rated team – men’s or women’s – in the history of the World Rugby Rankings.

They gained 0.60 points for their hard-fought 21-12 win over Canada in Sunday’s title decider in Vancouver to increase their advantage over the tournament hosts at the top of the rankings to 8.25 points.

Before this weekend no team had ever broken through the 97-point barrier since rankings were first introduced (for men’s teams) in 2003 – not even the All Blacks or the Springboks during their periods of dominance.

Scotland officially qualified for the World Cup with the completion of the WXV 2 tournament, ending second after Australia’s Wallaroos.

This marks Scotland’s seventh appearance at a World Cup since it was established in 1991 and the first time they have appeared at back-to-back World Cups since 2006 and 2010.

The Scots now join New Zealand, England, Canada, France, Australia, Brazil, Ireland, South Africa, Japan, USA, and Fiji – who previously qualified via regional tournaments.

The world has been watching, and now it’s time for rugby’s biggest stage 🏉

Welcome to all 16 qualified teams for the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025!#RWC2025 | #ThisEnergyNeverStops pic.twitter.com/4fco9DUlZJ

— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) October 12, 2024

The final teams to have qualified, on completion of WXV 2 and WXV 3 are Italy, Wales, Spain, and Samoa.

The expanded 16-team tournament will be the biggest ever Women’s Rugby World Cup yet and is the result of years of positive progress in the women’s game.

How will the draw work?
The 16 qualified teams will be given a seeding and placed into four bands depending on their position in the World Rugby Women’s Rankings on Monday, October 14.

The top four teams will be placed into band one, the second four teams into band two, and so on.

One team from each band will be drawn into each of the four pools so that each pool contains one team from band one, one team from Band Two, one team from Band Three, and one team from Band Four.

The pool draw will be streamed live to those outside of the UK via RugbyPass on Thursday, October 17 at 20.20 SA time (19:20 (GMT). To view, click here