Hot on the heels of the massively successful UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 tournament in Switzerland comes another major sporting event – the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025, hosted in England.
France – ranked number four in the world behind England, New Zealand and Canada – open their bid for a first-ever title at Sandy Park, in Exeter, south-west England, on Saturday August 23rd against Six Nations rivals Italy, a day after England for the title kick off proceedings against USA in Sunderland.
Reigning champions New Zealand begin the defence of their title against Spain in York on Sunday.
The final, at the Allianz Stadium (aka Twickenham for more traditional readers) in London on September 27th, is already an 82,000-seat sell-out, meaning it will be the best-attended women’s rugby union match in history.
Meanwhile, more than 40,000 tickets have been sold for the opening match at the Stadium of Light on Friday, with World Rugby expecting that figure to be closer to 50,000 before the match gets under way.
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If you’re not one of those lucky enough to hold one or more of the 375,000 or so tickets that have been sold for matches at the tournament, and intend to watch the action on TV in France, here’s where – and when – the matches will be broadcast.
No Fan Zones are planned at this stage, but that might change if Gaëlle Mignot and David Ortiz’s charges get to the final. For now, though, your best bet for a communal fan experience watching the tournament is to catch games in a bar or café, or arrange your own party.
In good news, most of the matches will be shown on free-to-air terrestrial TV in France, shared between France Télévisions (via France 2 and France 3) and TF1 plus its sister channels TMC and TFX, although some of the pool stage games are on the streaming channel TF1+.
For fans of Les Bleues, the three pool-phase matches that matter are:
Saturday, August 23rd: France v Italy – 9.15pm (all times are French time) on TF1
Sunday, August 31st: France v Brazil – 5.45pm France 2
Sunday, September 7th: France v South Africa – 5.45pm France 2
The full pool phase coverage (broadcasts begin 10 minutes before the shown kick-off times) is as follows:
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Friday, August 22nd
(Pool A) England v USA – 8.30pm France 3
Saturday, August 23rd
(Pool A) Australia v Samoa – 1pm TMC and TF1+
(Pool B) Scotland v Wales – 3.45pm France 2
(Pool B) Canada v Fiji – 6.30pm TMC and TF1+
(Pool D) France v Italy – 9.15pm TF1 and TF1+
Sunday, August 24th
(Pool C) Ireland v Japan – 1pm France 3
(Pool D) South Africa v Brazil – 3.45pm TFX and TF1+
(Pool C) New Zealand v Spain – 6.30pm TMC and TF1+
Saturday, August 30th
(Pool B) Canada v Wales – 1pm France 3
(Pool B) Scotland v Fiji – 3.45pm TFX and TF1+
(Pool A) England v Samoa – 6pm TFX and TF1+
(Pool A) USA v Australia – 8.30pm TFX and TF1+
Sunday, August 31st
(Pool C) Ireland v Spain – 1pm TFX and TF1+
(Pool C) New Zealand v Japan – 3pm France 2
(Pool D) Italy v South Africa – 4.30pm TF1
(Pool D) France v Brazil – 5.45pm France 2
Saturday, September 6th
(Pool B) Canada v Scotland – 1pm France 3
(Pool A) USA v Samoa – 2.30pm TF1+
(Pool B) Wales v Fiji – 3.45pm TMC and TF1+
(Pool A) England v Australia – 6pm TMC and TF1+
Sunday, September 7th
(Pool C) Japan v Spain – 1pm TFX and TF1+
(Pool D) Italy v Brazil – 3pm TFX and TF11
(Pool C) New Zealand v Ireland – 3.45pm France 3
(Pool D) France v South Africa – 5.45pm France 2
TV schedules for the knockout phase will be based on pool-phase results and qualifiers, so have yet to be confirmed.
But if France finish top of Pool D – which is far from guaranteed with the always-difficult Italy and fast-improving South Africa in their way – they will play in quarter-final 3. If they finish second, they will play in quarter-final 1.
The knockout phase fixtures are as follows.
Saturday, September 13th
Quarter-final 1: Winner Pool C v Second Pool D – 2pm France TV / TF1
Quarter-final 2: Winner Pool B v Second Pool A – 5pm France TV / TF1
Sunday, September 14th
Quarter-final 3: Winner Pool D v Second Pool C – 2pm France TV / TF1
Quarter-final 4: Winner Pool A v Second Pool B – 5pm France TV / TF1
Friday, September 19th
Semi-final 1: Winner Quarter-final 1 v Winner Quarter-final 2 – 8pm France TV / TF1
Saturday, September 20th
Semi-final 2: Winner Quarter-final 3 v Winner Quarter-final 4 – 8pm France TV / TF1
Saturday, September 27th
Bronze final: Loser semi-final 1 v Loser semi-final 2 – 1.30pm TF1
Final: Winner semi-final 1 v Winner semi-final 2 – 5pm TF1
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
