Sadia Kabeya: Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 ‘amazing’ opportunity for hosts England

The Red Roses have already generated huge interest in the recent past – in 2023 they sealed a Six Nations Grand Slam in front of a record women’s crowd of 58,498 at Twickenham.

At the same venue last December, Harlequins broke the world record for a women’s club match when 16,237 watched on as they were beaten by Gloucester-Hartpury.

Data from the Women’s Sport Trust – a charity promoting the participation of women and girls in sport – showed that this year’s Women’s Six Nations attracted 13 million viewing hours, up from 10m in 2023, to make it the most-viewed edition so far.

Such growth in women’s sport over recent years has prompted finance experts Deloitte to predict the industry at the elite level will generate more than £1bn for the first time in 2024.

The Women’s Rugby World Cup drew record attendance figures when last held in New Zealand in 2022, with more than 140,000 spectators attending games across the tournament.

England, two-time World Cup winners who are yet to claim the prize on home soil, will next year host the event for the first time since 2010.

It is a tournament that World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont hopes will “engage and inspire new audiences in ways that rugby events have not done before”.

Kabeya was part of the England side that lost the 2021 World Cup final to New Zealand and sees the 2025 tournament as a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity.

“Being put in the spotlight, having a great tournament and aiming to bring that cup home, I’d love to do that,” she said.

“It’s so exciting to have a home World Cup, you can’t aim for anything better.”