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Fans will be able to plot their team’s path to Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 glory once Thursday’s eagerly anticipated draw has been made.
Now that all 16 teams for the expanded showpiece tournament have been confirmed the next step is to find out who each team will be playing during the pool stage.
The qualified nations have been seeded based on Monday’s World Rugby Women’s Rankings and divided into four bands.
With exactly one year to go until Women’s Rugby World Cup England 2025 kicks off
in Sunderland, excitement is sweeping across the host nation in anticipation of what
will be the biggest and most accessible celebration of women’s rugby ever.
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The top four seeds have been prepopulated into the first position of each pool, with England in Pool A, Canada in Pool B, New Zealand in Pool C and France in Pool D.
You can find out who will join them in those pools by watching the official draw live on the BBC and RugbyPass TV from 19:20 BST (GMT+1) on Thursday.
To help you prepare for the draw, we have taken a closer look at each of the four bands.
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Band one
Teams: England, Canada, New Zealand, France
How they qualified: England were guaranteed their place at the tournament as hosts, while the Black Ferns are defending champions and Canada and France also made it due to their performance at Women’s RWC 2021, where they contested the bronze final.
Team to avoid: Canada are arguably the most-improved side in international rugby, but no team from the other three bands will want to be drawn in Pool A. The Red Roses are on a 20-match winning run and have lost just once in their previous 51 Tests.
John Mitchell’s side head into the draw with a record World Rugby Women’s Rankings rating having become the first team – men’s or women’s – to break through the 97-point barrier with victory against Canada last weekend.
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Band two
Teams: Australia, Ireland, Scotland, Italy
How they qualified: Ireland booked their ticket to England by finishing third in the Women’s Six Nations standings earlier this year. Australia, Scotland and Italy secured their passage at the end of WXV 2.