Ashton Gate named host venue for Women's Rugby World Cup 2025
Bristol is one of eight cities across England which will host action
Just days after the Lionesses' heroic efforts in Sydney, it's confirmed more Women's World Cup sporting action is coming to Bristol!
Ashton Gate has been named as a host venue for the Women's Rugby World Cup in 2025.
Eight host venues have been confirmed across England with Twickenham, Sandy Park and York Community Stadium also on the list.
The tournament is due to start in exactly two years on 22 August, 2025.
Jenny Hutchinson, Venue Director at Ashton Gate Stadium, said: “We are incredibly proud to be selected as one of the host venues for the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025.
"There’s been a lot of work and collaboration behind the scenes to make this a reality, not least working with our home football and rugby teams to make the schedules work, and we’re all hugely excited to be able to host some of these games at Ashton Gate.
"We’ve hosted a number of international games here, in both football and rugby – each time setting and breaking new records for attendances, so it was a no-brainer for us to bring key stakeholders in the city together to put a compelling bid to be one of the host venues.”
The tournament is set to be expanded for the 10th edition in 2025, with 16 teams, up from 12.
World Rugby and the Rugby Football Union (RFU) say the chosen venues reflect the tournament's "core mission" of growing the sport.
Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, said: “It’s amazing for Bristol to be chosen to be a host city of the 2025 Rugby World Cup.
"We set out a number of years ago with sports partners from across Bristol to be a place that can bring world-class sporting events to the city for people to share in and this is the fulfilment of that vision.
"This is another opportunity to showcase Bristol to the world.
"We have a great track record of hosting major sporting events, including the Red Roses’ record-breaking 73-7 win against Wales at Ashton Gate last year.
“We want young Bristolians to be inspired by watching Rugby World Cup matches in our city and to start playing themselves."
The last Women's Rugby World Cup, in 2021, saw 150,000 fans attend across the tournament.
The final between England and New Zealand was watched by 1.8 million television views on average in each country, with 156 million views across social media.
Lark Atkin-Davies, Red Roses and Bristol Bears Women player, said: “Women’s sport in the general is on the up, our fanbase has been building massively and you saw it when England played at Twickenham in the Women’s Six Nations.
"We’ll fill Ashton Gate with fans that will make loads of noise as when we last played here it was an incredible atmosphere and I’m excited for more of that for the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025.”
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