2023 Women's Rugby World Cup (Kylaris)

2023 Women's Rugby World Cup

File:WRWC 2023 logo.svg
Tournament details
Host nation	Template:Country data Estmere
Dates	6 September – 23 September 2023
No. of nations	20
← 2019 Rizealand 2027 Etruria →

The 2023 Women's Rugby World Cup is the eighth edition of the Women's Rugby World Cup. It is being held from 6 to 23 September 2023. It is the first Women's Rugby World Cup to be held entirely within Estmere, the birthplace of rugby union. Matches will be played at eight venues across the country, starting and finishing in the Wolfgar Godfredson Memorial Stadium in Morwall.

The defending champions are Estmere, who defeated Satavia in the 2019 Women's Rugby World Cup final.

Host selection

2023 RWC Council voting (majority 20 votes)

Bidders	Votes
	Round 1	Round 2
Estmere	17	23
Nuvania	14	16
Cassier	8	Eliminated

Venues

Wolfgar Godfredson Memorial Stadium	Elland Park Stadium	Sheaford Automotive Arena	The Old Balinnish
Morwall	Harbrough	Sheaford	Dunwich
Capacity: 84,000	Capacity: 51,000	Capacity: 36,000	Capacity: 36,000
Guildley All-Sports Arena	Henver Xperience Stadium	Clearmount Road Stadium	Estagen Stadium Bouley
Morwall	Henver	Tolbury	Bouley
Capacity: 29,000	Capacity: 22,000	Capacity: 20,000	Capacity: 20,000

Qualifying

File:WRWC qualifiers 2023.png

  Qualified from 2019 tournament.

  Qualified from regional tournaments/repechage.

  Failed to qualify.

20 teams qualified. The host nation of Estmere automatically qualified by winning the 2019 edition, but would have qualified anyway by virtue of being the host nation. They were joined by the other top three finishers in each pool from the 2019 tournament (Rizealand, Caldia, Satavia, Chistovodia, Gaullica, Garambura, Rwizikuru, Maucha, Padaratha, Cassier and Etruria). A further seven teams (Hennehouwe, Hacyinia, Satucin, Senria, Azmara, Vanhar and Scovern) qualified by winning regional tournaments in Euclea, Coius and the Asterias. Tengaria qualified by the winning the repechage place made available since the host nation had already qualified.

A notable absence from the 2023 tournament was Nuvania, which failed to qualify despite being ranked fifth globally.

Numbers in parentheses are final positions in the International Rugby Ranking before the tournament.

Asterias (6) Cassier (12) Chistovodia (6) Rizealand (2) Satavia (4) Satucin (16) Vanhar (22)

Coius (6) Garambura (8) Hacyinia (15) Maucha (10) Padaratha (11) Rwizikuru (9) Senria (17)

Euclea (8) Azmara (20) Caldia (3) Template:Country data Estmere (host) (1) Etruria (13) Gaullica (7) Hennehouwe (14) Scovern (23) Tengaria (26)

Draw

The pool draw took place in January 2020, with five bands. Three bands were made up of the automatically qualifying teams and two bands were made up of the teams which had to qualify through regional tournaments and repechage. The same seeding system that had been used for prior world cups was used again in 2023. The draw was subject to criticism, much like the 2021 men's tournament, in that the draw took place over 3 years prior to the contest. The organisers said it was too late to change the process for this world cup, but responded to criticism that future world cups would conduct their pool draws closer to the tournament date.

• Band 1: The four highest ranked teams
• Band 2: The next four highest ranked teams
• Band 3: The final four automatically qualified teams

The remaining two bands were made up of qualifying teams:

• Band 5: Asterias 1, Coius 1, Euclea 1, Euclea 3
• Band 6: Asterias 2, Coius 2, Euclea 3, Repechage

This means the 20 competing teams were seeded thus (world ranking as of 1 January 2020):

Band 1	Band 2	Band 3	Band 4	Band 5
Template:Country data Estmere (host) (1) Rizealand (2) Caldia (3) Satavia (4)	Chistovodia (6) Gaullica (7) Garambura (8) Rwizikuru (9)	Maucha (10) Padaratha (11) Cassier (12) Etruria (13)	Hennehouwe (14) Hacyinia (15) Satucin (16) Scovern (23)	Senria (17) Azmara (20) Vanhar (22) Tengaria (26)

Squads

Main article: 2023 Women's Rugby World Cup squads

The deadline for squad announcements was 20 August; hosts Estmere had announced their squad by 24 July whilst Azmara were the last to announce their squad, doing so on the morning of 20 August. Each team selected 33 player squads; two teams, Garambura and Satavia, both selected ineligible players who were later replaced with the approval of Kylaris Rugby. Four teams were forced to replace players as a result of injuries sustained during World Cup warm-up matches, all with the approval of Kylaris Rugby.

Match officials

Referees	Assistant referees	Television match officials
Template:Country data Estmere Darcy Pierce Sylvia Gaume Fionnuala Mhic Gráda Kholeka Mazwai Ruby Ellis Isa Vaccarella Klara Smit Template:Country data Estmere Maisie Moore Sandra Rivera Maol Mhic Thréinfhir	Aoife Ní Maoilbhríde Zanele Dumile Melisse Young Josée Gounelle Lucille Chappuis Template:Country data Estmere Amayah Cooke	Template:Country data Estmere Lila Webb Ana Nic Donnchadha Madeleine Macdonald Mikayla Schoeman

Pool stage

The 20 teams were divided into four pools of five teams, which play each other in a round-robin tournament of 10 matches. Teams are awarded four points for a win, two for a draw and none for a defeat. Furthermore, bonus points are awarded to teams who score four or more tries in one game, as well as to teams that lose by less than seven points. The top two teams progress to the knockout stage, whilst the top three teams all receive automatic qualification for the 2027 world cup.

Key to colours in pool tables
	Advanced to the quarter-finals and qualified for the 2027 Women's Rugby World Cup
	Eliminated but qualified for 2027 Women's Rugby World Cup

Pld = Number of games played; W = Number of games won; D = Number of games drawn; L = Number of games lost; BP = Bonus pool points; Pts = Total number of pool points

Pool A

Team	Pld	W	D	L	BP	Total Pts
Cassier	1	1	0	0	0	4
Senria	1	0	0	1	0	0
Template:Country data Estmere	0	0	0	0	0	0
Chistovodia	0	0	0	0	0	0
Hacyinia	0	0	0	0	0	0

6 September 2023

Template:Country data Estmere	v	Chistovodia

Wolfgar Godfredson Memorial Stadium, Morwall Referee: Sylvia Gaume (Gaullica)

6 September 2023

Cassier	22–3	Senria
Try: Moreau 17' Rodriguez 37' Murphy 74' Con: Dufour (2/3) 18', 75' Pen: Dufour (1/1) 46'	Report	Pen: Ogata (1/4) 59'

Wolfgar Godfredson Memorial Stadium, Morwall Referee: Darcy Pierce (Estmere)

8 September 2023	Template:Country data Estmere	-	Hacyinia	Sheaford Automotive Arena, Sheaford
8 September 2023	Chistovodia	-	Cassier	Sheaford Automotive Arena, Sheaford
10 September 2023	Template:Country data Estmere	-	Senria	Elland Park Stadium, Harbrough
10 September 2023	Hacyinia	-	Chistovodia	Elland Park Stadium, Harbrough
12 September 2023	Template:Country data Estmere	-	Cassier	Clearmount Road Stadium, Tolbury
12 September 2023	Senria	-	Chistovodia	Clearmount Road Stadium, Tolbury
13 September 2023	Hacyinia	-	Cassier	Henver Xperience Stadium, Henver
15 September 2023	Hacyinia	-	Senria	Henver Xperience Stadium, Henver

Pool B

Team	Pld	W	D	L	BP	Total Pts
Caldia	1	1	0	0	1	5
Tengaria	1	1	0	0	0	4
Padaratha	1	0	0	1	1	1
Rwizikuru	1	0	0	1	0	0
Hennehouwe	0	0	0	0	0	0

6 September 2023

Caldia	39–0	Rwizikuru
Try: Ní hÓsáine 7' Ní Shuileabháin 19' Ní Muraíle 36' Ní Cheallaighe 64' Con: Ní hAiliosa (2/4) 8', 37' Pen: Ní hAiliosa (5/7) 15', 27', 47', 68', 71'	Report

Wolfgar Godfredson Memorial Stadium, Morwall Referee: Kholeka Mazwai (Garambura)

6 September 2023

Padaratha	3–10	Tengaria
Pen: Srishti (1/3) 70'	Report	Try: Arece 3' Con: Asolariani (1/1) 4' Pen: Asolariani (1/2) 64'

Wolfgar Godfredson Memorial Stadium, Morwall Referee: Fionnuala Mhic Gráda (Caldia)

8 September 2023	Caldia	-	Hennehouwe	Sheaford Automotive Arena, Sheaford
8 September 2023	Rwizikuru	-	Padaratha	Sheaford Automotive Arena, Sheaford
10 September 2023	Caldia	-	Tengaria	Elland Park Stadium, Harbrough
10 September 2023	Hennehouwe	-	Rwizikuru	Elland Park Stadium, Harbrough
12 September 2023	Caldia	-	Padaratha	Clearmount Road Stadium, Tolbury
12 September 2023	Tengaria	-	Rwizikuru	Clearmount Road Stadium, Tolbury
13 September 2023	Hennehouwe	-	Padaratha	Henver Xperience Stadium, Henver
15 September 2023	Hennehouwe	-	Tengaria	Henver Xperience Stadium, Henver

Pool C

Team	Pld	W	D	L	BP	Total Pts
Rizealand	0	0	0	0	0	0
Gaullica	0	0	0	0	0	0
Etruria	0	0	0	0	0	0
Satucin	0	0	0	0	0	0
Azmara	0	0	0	0	0	0

7 September 2023	Rizealand	-	Gaullica	Elland Park Stadium, Harbrough
7 September 2023	Etruria	-	Azmara	Elland Park Stadium, Harbrough
9 September 2023	Rizealand	-	Satucin	The Old Balinnish, Dunwich
9 September 2023	Gaullica	-	Etruria	The Old Balinnish, Dunwich
11 September 2023	Rizealand	-	Azmara	Wolfgar Godfredson Memorial Stadium, Morwall
11 September 2023	Satucin	-	Gaullica	Wolfgar Godfredson Memorial Stadium, Morwall
13 September 2023	Rizealand	-	Etruria	Guildley All-Sports Arena, Morwall
13 September 2023	Azmara	-	Gaullica	Guildley All-Sports Arena, Morwall
15 September 2023	Satucin	-	Etruria	Estagen Stadium Bouley, Bouley
16 September 2023	Satucin	-	Azmara	Estagen Stadium Bouley, Bouley

Pool D

Team	Pld	W	D	L	BP	Total Pts
Satavia	0	0	0	0	0	0
Garambura	0	0	0	0	0	0
Maucha	0	0	0	0	0	0
Scovern	0	0	0	0	0	0
Vanhar	0	0	0	0	0	0

7 September 2023	Satavia	-	Garambura	Elland Park Stadium, Harbrough
7 September 2023	Maucha	-	Vanhar	Elland Park Stadium, Harbrough
9 September 2023	Satavia	-	Scovern	The Old Balinnish, Dunwich
9 September 2023	Garambura	-	Maucha	The Old Balinnish, Dunwich
11 September 2023	Satavia	-	Vanhar	Wolfgar Godfredson Memorial Stadium, Morwall
11 September 2023	Scovern	-	Garambura	Wolfgar Godfredson Memorial Stadium, Morwall
13 September 2023	Satavia	-	Maucha	Guildley All-Sports Arena, Morwall
13 September 2023	Vanhar	-	Garambura	Guildley All-Sports Arena, Morwall
15 September 2023	Scovern	-	Maucha	Estagen Stadium Bouley, Bouley
16 September 2023	Scovern	-	Vanhar	Estagen Stadium Bouley, Bouley

Knockout Stage

The knockout stage consisted of three single-elimination rounds, leading to the final and third-place play-off. In the event of a tie, ten minutes of extra time would be played. In the event of a tie after extra time, a further ten minutes of extra time would be played. If the game was still tied after that, a kicking competition would determine the winner.

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	18 September – Harbrough (Elland Park)
					21 September – Morwall (Wolfgar Godfredson)
	18 September – Harbrough (Elland Park)
									24 September – Morwall (Wolfgar Godfredson)
	19 September – Sheaford (Sheaford Automotive)
					22 September – Morwall (Wolfgar Godfredson)
	19 September – Dunwich (The Old Balinnish)
									Third place
									23 September – Morwall (Wolfgar Godfredson)

Broadcasting

• Alsland: ANS
• Azmara: ARF
• Caldia: TRN Spórt
• Template:Country data Estmere: EBS One and EBS Sports
• Etruria: ARE
• Gapolania: RTG Sport
• Hennehouwe: ATV Sport
• Kesselbourg: ATV Sport
• Montecara: Teleràdio Montecarà
• Nuvania: NuSport
• Rizealand: FBC Sports
• Rwizikuru: RIS
• Satavia: SBC
• Tengaria: Tengarska Televiziya
• West Miersa: Telewizja Mierska
• Other nations: worldsports.tv