Rugby World Cup (women's)
The Rugby World Cup for women, historically known as the Women's Rugby World Cup, is the premier international competition in rugby union for women. The tournament is organised by the sport's governing body, World Rugby. The championships are currently held every four years; the event was most recently held in Ireland in 2017. World Rugby has reset the tournament on a new four-year cycle to avoid conflict with the Commonwealth Games and Women's World Cup Sevens; World Cups will thus be held every four years after 2017. On 21 August 2019 , World Rugby announced that gender designations would be removed from the titles of the men's and women's World Cups. Accordingly, all future World Cups for men and women will officially bear the "Rugby World Cup" name. The first tournament to be affected by the new policy will be the next women's tournament, originally scheduled for New Zealand in 2021 but delayed to 2022 due to COVID-19 issues; that event will retain its intended name of "Rugby World Cup 2021". The first Women's Rugby World Cup was held in 1991 and won by the United States. The  1991 and 1994 competitions were not officially sanctioned by World Rugby, then known as the International Rugby Football Board, at the time - they later received retrospective endorsement in 2009 when the governing body, which by that time had changed its name to the International Rugby Board, included the 1991 and 1994 champions in its list of previous winners. It was not until the 1998 tournament held in the Netherlands that the tournament received official IRB backing, and the IRB retroactively recognised the preceding tournaments. The most successful team, with five titles, is New Zealand. History. 1990s. Prior to the first  Women's Rugby World Cup officially sanctioned by the International Rugby Board there had been three previous tournaments of a similar nature. The first of these was an event held in August 1990 in New Zealand. Though not considered a world cup, the tournament was referred to as the World Rugby Festival for Women. The competition included teams representing the United States, the Netherlands, Russia, and the hosts, New Zealand – who emerged as winners after defeating the United States in the final. The first tournament referred to as the Women's Rugby World Cup was held in 1991 and hosted  by Wales. Twelve countries were divided into four groups of three. The United States, against expectations, took the first championship with a 19–6 victory over England. In the Plate competition Canada prevailed over Spain 18–4. Following the first tournament it was decided to move the tournament schedule to the year prior to the next men's world cup therefore reducing the quadrennial cycle to just three years. The next event was originally scheduled to take place in Amsterdam but ended up being moved to Scotland. Eleven countries competed in the tournament with the English meeting the United States in the  final for the second time however, in this instance England emerged as winners. The 1998 tournament became the first women's world cup officially sanctioned by the International Rugby Board. Amsterdam, who were originally scheduled to host the previous world cup, hosted the largest ever tournament with all matches played at the new National Rugby Centre in the city's west end. The tournament also saw a record sixteen teams compete. New Zealand, who withdrew from the previous tournament, also competed. The final saw New Zealand defeat the United States and claim their first world cup title. 2000–present. The  next event was taken to Spain in 2002. New Zealand won the title for the second time by defeating England 19–9 in the final. The 2006 World Cup took place in Edmonton, Canada, and was the first major international rugby union tournament and women's world cup held in North America. New Zealand defeated England in the final to win their third successive world cup title. The 2017 World Cup was hosted by the Irish Rugby Football Union, which governs the sport on an All-Ireland basis. Games were held in Dublin in the Republic of Ireland and in Belfast  in Northern Ireland. New Zealand will host the next Rugby World Cup for women in 2022, one year later than planned. From 2025 the competition finals will be expanded to 16 teams, from the 12 competing in 2021. World Rugby named England as preferred candidate to host the 2025 tournament in November 2021. The final decision on hosts will be made in May 2022. Results. Participating nations. Q = nation qualified for Final Tournament not yet played w = nation withdrew from (final) Tournament e = nation eliminated in qualifying stage and did not reach Final Tournament – = nation did  not enter competition. The following nations have participated in qualifying stages, but have never reached the Final Tournament: e = nation eliminated in qualifying stage and did not reach Final Tournament w = nation withdrew from qualifying stage p = nation possibly eliminated in qualifying stage and will need to be successful in Repechage in order to reach Final Tournament – = nation did not enter qualifying stage competition. Apart from the African region, the nations involved in the continental qualifying stages have not been announced as at 20 October 2019. Format. The format for the 2006 tournament split the 12  participating nations into four pools of three teams. Each nation played three games, after the completion of which a re-seeding process took place. Nations were moved into divisions dictated by their respective overall tournament ranking with the top teams proceeding to the knockout stages. The 2010 event maintained the number of teams participating at twelve, with regional qualifying tournaments. In previous tournaments teams were selected by the IRB based on international performances as opposed to qualification via regional tournaments. Media coverage. The tournament has grown considerably in the past fifteen years although television audiences and event attendance still remain  relatively low, especially in comparison to other women's world cup events. The final of the 2006 event in Canada was broadcast in a number of countries and streamed live via the internet. Sky Sports broadcast 13 live matches from the 2010 Women’s Rugby World Cup, including the semi-finals, the third and fourth place play-off match and the final. The pool matches shown included all of England's matches, while each of the home nations' featured live too. There were also highlights shown from all other matches during the pool stages. In Ireland the Women's Rugby  World Cup was broadcast by TG4 in 2014, the Irish language channel received praise for airing the tournament. TG4 provided coverage to all of the Irish matches as well as the final and semi-final. Certain matches in the 2017 WRWC knockout phases drew strong TV viewership in England and France, and were broadcast live in the United States. In 2017, ITV started televising Women’s Rugby Union World Cup matches on free-to-air TV for the first time in history, starting with the 2017 Women’s Rugby World Cup in Ireland.