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Ticket sales for the Women’s Rugby World Cup are more than triple the previous tournament in New Zealand. England, the host side, will face Canada in the final on Saturday at a long sold-out Twickenham and figures released on Monday showed more than 440,000 tickets have been sold for the tournament.
“That is 100,000 more than our original objective,” said the tournament’s managing director, Sarah Massey. “It is three times the number that was sold for the last women’s Rugby World Cup. It is an extraordinary milestone that even surpasses our best expectations.”
The competition has broken several attendance records with the final likely to follow suit with a landmark for a women’s rugby match when more than 80,000 are expected at the home of England rugby. The record stands at 58,498, set in the 2023 Six Nations match between England and France.
Fans showing up in stadiums though is only one part of the picture with a peak of 3.1 million viewers watching England’s semi-final against France on BBC One.
England saw off France and Canada knocked out New Zealand, the defending champions, in part thanks to their respective fast ruck speed as Canada and England completed 45% of their rucks in less than two seconds.
The competition director, Yvonne Nolan, said: “That is rapid. That is quicker than the average men’s Test rugby speed. It is a massive jump in standards and that is what we are seeing across this whole tournament. Back [in 2022], 11% of Canada’s rucks were that quick and 21% of England’s were.”
The women’s 15s player of the year and breakthrough player nominees were named on Monday with the England centre Meg Jones up for player of the year alongside the Canada lock Sophie de Goede and the New Zealand back-row Jorja Miller. The winners, and the coach and referee of the year, will be honoured at the final.
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Miller has also been nominated for breakthrough player of the year with her 18-year-old international teammate Braxton Sorensen-McGee and Fiji’s Josifini Neihamu.
