Mererangi Paul in the Black Ferns v Ireland Women WXV1 tournament in Canada in September 2024.
Photo: Photosport / Paul Yates
The defending champion Black Ferns have been drawn with Ireland, Japan and Spain in pool C for next year’s rugby World Cup in England.
World No.6 Ireland claimed an upset 29-27 win over the World No.3 ranked Black Ferns in their WXV match in Vancouver last month.
Ireland were the last team to defeat the Black Ferns at a World Cup, stunning the New Zealanders in pool play in 2014.
Since that defeat the back to back world champion Black Ferns have won 11 consecutive World Cup games.
Amy Rule on the burst for the Black Ferns against Ireland in Vancouver. 2024.
Photo: Paul Yates / www.photosport.nz
New Zealand have played both Spain (ranked 13th) and Japan (ranked 11th) once each, with the Black Ferns winning both games.
World No.1 and favourites England, runners up at the 2021 World Cup in New Zealand (played in 2022) will face Australia, USA and Samoa in Pool A.
World No.2 Canada will face Scotland, Wales and Fiji in Pool B, with World No.4 France, bronze medallists at the last tournament in Pool D with Italy, South Africa and Brazil.
The match schedule will be released on 22 October.
At the 2025 World Cup teams will play each of their pool opponents over three weekends with the two best teams on competition points in each pool qualifying for the quarter-finals and the knockout phase.
Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 Managing Director, Sarah Massey, said: “With anticipation building amongst fans and teams for next year’s showpiece event, today marks an important step forward to what will be an unmissable tournament.
“Next week will see the tournament celebrate another exciting milestone, as we unveil the match schedule, allowing fans, host locations and teams to start preparing their Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 experience in earnest.”
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