Northampton ready to host 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup

With less than 500 days to go until the start of the Women’s Rugby World Cup, legacy programme Impact ’25 launched in Northampton yesterday.

To mark yesterday's 500-day milestone, local girls joined members of the Rugby Football Union (RFU), Northampton Saints and West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) at the Cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens.

Young girls were able to take part in non-contact rugby sessions, led by Loughborough Lightning players Daisy Hibbert-Jones, Emma Hardy and Abby Duguid.

Northampton Saints partnered with women's top flight team in order to create a step change and engage more young women to take part in rugby.

Speaking at the event Mick Wright Chief of events for World Rugby said: "We think we're at a point where next years tournament will be a generational moment for women's rugby.

"It's really important it's accessible for everyone and 95% of the population in England can get to one of our host venues within two hours."

There are eight different venues across England set to host matches for next years tournament:

• Brighton and Hove – Brighton and Hove Albion Stadium
• Bristol – Ashton Gate
• Exeter – Sandy Park
• London – Twickenham Stadium
• Manchester – Salford Community Stadium
• Northampton – Franklin’s Gardens
• Sunderland – Stadium of Light
• York – York Community Stadium

Speaking at the Impact 25 event, Northampton Saints CEO Mark Darbon said: "We're really exciting at the prospect of playing a role in the step change of women's and girls rugby.

"Events like the World Cup give you a chance to supercharge that growth and bring the sport into the consciousness of millions of people.

"We're also really proud of our roots here in Northampton and these major events give us a chance to drive people to the town and see our amazing facilities.

"Having those role models for young people is so important, I've got an eight year old daughter and she loves watching the Loughborough Lightning players, not just here but at international level to."

Loughborough Lightning player Emma Hardy also spoke about keeping girls in the game long term.

"It's massively different to when a lot of us lightning girls were growing up, I was at some points the only girl but now there's loads of girls involved in the sport.

"It's much more easily accessible now, but the main part is not just introducing girls to the game it's helping them stay in the game."

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