Next year’s tournament hosts England — who are currently on a 20-game winning streak — join Canada, champions New Zealand and France as the top seeds, while Australia, Scotland and Italy are seeded second alongside Ireland.
The pool stage draw takes place this Thursday evening from 7.20pm on BBC One’s “The One Show”.
The full seeding list is (rankings in brackets):
Following the draw, the match schedule will be released on Tuesday 22 October.
Despite poor attendances at the recent WXV tournaments, where Ireland finished second at WXV1 in Canada, more than 60,000 tickets have already been sold across the opening match at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light and the bronze final and final at Twickenham.
Demand during the presale periods has exceeded supply, demonstrating the high level of excitement for the tournament. Ten teams have already qualified: Canada, France, Brazil, Ireland, South Africa, Japan, USA, Fiji, reigning champions New Zealand, and hosts England with the remaining six places to come from WXV 2024.
BBC Sport’s Gabby Logan and Women’s Rugby World Cup winner Maggie Alphonsi, along with a presenter from The One Show, will host the draw, which will be independently scrutineered by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Following the draw, the match schedule will be revealed on Tuesday, October 22, giving teams, host locations and fans clarity on fixtures. It has already been confirmed that England will play their opening match in Sunderland, with their remaining two pool matches being played in Northampton and Brighton and Hove.
All fans will have the opportunity to apply for tickets for all matches from 11:00 (GMT +1) on Tuesday 5 November until 11:00 (GMT+1) on Tuesday 19 November. Ballots will be used for any price categories which are oversubscribed.