Welcome to the fourth edition of Women’s Sport Insider! 

For the past month, Women’s Rugby World Cup fever has swept across England. From Bristol to Brighton, Northampton to Manchester, record crowds have packed stadiums and been treated to fierce battles and dazzling tries.

Now, just two teams remain. England and Canada will meet at Twickenham Stadium on Saturday in front of what should be a record crowd for a women’s rugby match. It will be the perfect finale for a historic tournament.

In this month’s newsletter, we take a look at how World Rugby are planning to build on the surge of interest witnessed over the past four weeks, and how their roadmap could benefit all of women’s sport. Let’s get into it.

World Rugby’s Blueprint for Growth: A roadmap every women's sport can learn from 

The opening match of the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 produced a remarkable statistic.  

A crowd of 42,723 packed into the Stadium of Light in Sunderland to watch England’s 69-7 victory over the United States, setting a new record for the highest attendance at a Women’s Rugby World Cup match. Even more striking – that one fixture almost matched the entire combined attendance of the tournament in 2017. 

Back then, 45,412 fans watched the competition unfold in Ireland, averaging 1,514 per match. Four years later in New Zealand, the figure rose to a combined 140,000, or 5,385 per match.  

This year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup has already left those numbers far behind. Before a single scrum was contested, more than 375,000 of the 470,000 available tickets had been sold across all 32 games. And with the final on September 27 already sold out, the 82-000 capacity Twickenham Stadium is set to welcome a record crowd for a women’s rugby match. 

There’s no other way to describe this level of growth than exponential. Women’s rugby has never been in a stronger position. But with record crowds and unprecedented attention comes the bigger question – how can the sport convert this momentum into lasting change?   

The challenge now is to turn short-term excitement into long-term impact, resulting in more consistent coverage, greater participation at every level, increased investment and a sustainable future for the women’s game. 

That’s where World Rugby’s recently launched ‘A Blueprint for Growth’ comes in. Billed as the most comprehensive study to date on the rise, relevance and reach of women’s rugby, the report provides a strategic roadmap to help unlock the full commercial potential of the game globally. 

The strategy is centred around five key focus areas intended to help national unions, governments and competition owners turn momentum into meaningful and long-term growth: 

• Make it impossible to miss women’s rugby 

• Empower players to tell their stories 

• Give fans even more opportunities to watch stars of the game 

• Continue to grow pathways 

• Lean into fluid fandom 

It’s brilliant to see an international federation proactively supporting the growth of its women’s sport with such a detailed and insightful tool, even more so because the lessons from the report can apply well beyond rugby. ‘A Blueprint for Growth’ speaks to wider truths across women’s sport – visibility drives engagement, audiences are younger and more diverse, and players are the most powerful force in attracting and retaining fans. 

Mirroring women's sport trends 

‘A Blueprint for Growth’ shows women’s rugby fans differ from the men’s game in key ways. They are younger (29% under 35), more gender-balanced (43% female) and family-oriented (50% have children). 

These demographics reflect wider trends across women’s sport, where 73% of fans are aged 18-44 (compared to 62% in men’s sport), 43% are female and family attendance is high – 48% of ticket holders at Women’s EURO 2022 attended as part of a family, for example. 

And as in all of women’s sport, visibility remains central to bringing these audiences in. Half of women’s rugby fans cite increased broadcast and digital coverage as their entry point into the sport, while 39% of fans say greater player visibility has deepened their connection with the sport. 

If visibility opens the door, it is the players who keep fans coming back. Women’s rugby is being powered by athletes whose personalities resonate far beyond the pitch. USA’s Ilona Maher is perhaps the standout example, with 5.2 million Instagram followers and 3.7 million on TikTok, but she is far from the only one. 

Throughout the tournament, videos showing off the brilliant personalities on display at the Women’s Rugby World Cup have achieved unprecedented reach and engagement across social media channels. 

Whether it’s Canada’s Asia Hogan-Rochester playing with glitter on her face, England’s Abby Dow gifting a crocheted shirt to Scotland’s Rhona Lloyd or Australia’s Desiree Miller’s heartwarming interaction with a young supporter, these moments have captured imaginations every bit as much as the highlight reels of spectacular tries and flashes of individual flair that have defined the tournament on the pitch. 

The concept of female athletes finding resonance on social media is not confined to rugby. In 2024, women accounted for 61% of all TikTok views among the SportsPro 50 most marketable athletes, for example. 

As such, leveraging social media to spotlight athletes’ personalities isn’t just effective; it’s essential for the growth of women’s sport. But the responsibility cannot fall on the players alone.  

Clubs, national teams and federations must provide the support and infrastructure that allow athletes to express themselves on social media without compromising wellbeing or performance. By demonstrating the impact of athlete storytelling and a strong social media strategy, ‘A Blueprint for Growth’ can help to shift this responsibility from individual players to the stakeholders best placed to carry it. 

Another key point brought up by ‘A Blueprint for Growth’ is how women’s rugby presents an exciting high-growth commercial opportunity for brands. The report finds 42% of women’s rugby fans say they are more likely to discuss a sponsoring brand with family or friends, compared with 33% of men’s rugby fans.  

Once again, this reflects broader trends in women’s sport, where 42% of fans say they would consider the sponsoring brand more than competitors, versus 36% of men’s sport fans. 

So, as the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 continues to smash records and break barriers, ‘A Blueprint for Growth’ gives rugby – and women’s sport more widely – a framework to sustain the current trajectory. Its impact would be even greater if every international federation took inspiration and developed a similar tool, capturing the unique nuances of their own sport to strengthen the entire women’s sport ecosystem.