World Cup facts & figures: Pool C

Pool C promises to be a real battle, with some real atmosphere as the hosts and Wales?˜take on the southern hemisphere's...

Published by John Birch, July 27, 2014

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World Cup facts & figures: Pool C

Registered adult players: 2399Registered players per 1000 women: 0.20Scrumqueens test ranking: 12World Cup Seeding: 3Results - all time: P 34, W 10, L 24Results ?? since last World Cup: P 2, L 2Average age of squad: 28.7

Australia did not form a women??s team until 1994, so missed the first two World Cups. However, they have been ever-presents since, though it was not until 2010 that they made a significant impact on the tournament. That said they finished 5 and would have reached the semi-finals at their first attempt in 1998 but for a narrow 10-8 pool defeat to France, while in 2002 and 2006 they finished 7. However 2010 was the breakthrough year when, buoyed up perhaps by their 2009 sevens World Championship, they took third place with a 22-8 win against France in the play-off.

Australia have played all three pool opponents before, and have only previously lost to France ?? that third place win being the only time Australia have beaten France in three attempts. In contrast they have won both of the games they have played against both Wales and South Africa.

Australia hold the only two women??s world rugby?˜titles not currently held by New Zealand (in touch rugby and rugby league) and there is a significant cross-over from both to the current Australian squad.

Australia??s relatively poor all-time record is at least partly due to their having played (and lost to) New Zealand in 12 of the 34 tests they have played to date. Their low ranking is almost entirely due to them playing only two tests in the past four years - fewer than any other team.

Prop Danielle Meskell will be the tournament's oldest player (40)

Registered adult players: 5515Registered players per 1000 women: 0.35Scrumqueens test ranking: 3World Cup Seeding: 4Results - all time: P 187, W 129, D 4, L 24Results ?? since last World Cup: P 35, W 27, L 8Average age of squad: 26.4

France have played in every World Cup to date, reaching the semi-finals in five of the six tournaments without ever making the final. This is partly due to sheer bad luck ?? in four of those semi-finals they lost to the eventual winner (in three cases New Zealand). In 1994, 2002 and 2006 they went on to win the third-place playoff - and French records also state that they achieved the same feat in 1991. However their 3-0 win over New Zealand was not an official part of the tournament, and is not recognised even as a test match by New Zealand who fielded all of the players who had not played in a significant part in the tournament.

France have also played ?? and beaten ?? all of their pool opponents. As well as the two wins out of three against Australia, they have beaten and drawn with South Africa in their two matches, and have won 16 out of 19 games against Wales.

France is arguably the true birthplace of modern women??s rugby, and even women??s rugby in general.?˜It was the first country to establish a national association for the women??s game (in 1969), have the world??s oldest national club championship (begun in 1976 in the teeth of opposition from government and the FFR, who threatened to ban all match officials), and took part in the first test match (in 1982). In addition there are records (and even films) of women playing a game very similar to rugby (called ??barette??)?˜90 years ago, with a national club championship being played for throughout the 1920s, and even evidence of organised women??s barette/rugby matches taking place as far back as the 1890s.

The "geography" of French elite women's rugby is significantly different (and more egalitarian)?˜than men's. Eighteen out the top thirty?˜men's?˜elite clubs are clustered in just the three regions of the south or south west, while the north (where there are three women's team) have?˜no senior men's teams at all. The eighteen women's teams are?˜much more evenly spread across the country with ten out of twelve regions?˜having at least one team. In particular there are three elite women's team in the Ile de France, where the World Cup is being played (compared to two elite men's teams).

Registered adult players: 3322Registered players per 1000 women: 0.03Scrumqueens test ranking: 9World Cup Seeding: 4Results - all time: P 36, W 11, D 1, L 24Results ?? since last World Cup: P 10, W 1, L 9Average age of squad: 26.7

South Africa are one of the newer nations on the women??s rugby scene, becoming the first African team to play in the world cup in 2006 (when they finished 12) before improving to 10 four years ago.

That 2010 performance was based around a pool win against Wales, a nation with a significant place in South African women??s history as they were their first opponents when they toured South Africa in 2004.Wales won both of the tests played on that tour, but since then South Africa have won two out of three. South Africa also showed what they can do when they drew with France in the Nations Cup in 2009, though they lost their most recent meeting earlier this month. They have been less lucky against Australia, who they have met in each of their past world cups, losing 68-12 and 62-0.

South African women's rugby is expanding quickly despite the late start - but the potential is huge. At present barely?˜one female in 30,000 plays rugby in South Africa - far fewer than any other country in the World Cup.

Registered adult players: 1545Registered players per 1000 women: 1.54Scrumqueens test ranking: 7World Cup Seeding: 8Results - all time: P 157, W 60, D 2, L 95Results ?? since last World Cup: P 21, W 6, L 15Average age of squad: 26.1

Wales were hosts of the first World Cup in 1991, and have played in every tournament since except 2006 when they were not invited to take part as they had finished bottom of the Six Nations. It was a controversial decision, as Wales ?? who were operating a policy of only selecting from Welsh clubs at that time - claimed that they had not been warned that Six Nations performance would be a criteria for World Cup selection.

At World Cups Wales have competed in, their best performance by far came in 1994 when they reached the semi-finals, losing to the United States before finishing fourth. At their home world cup in 1991 they did not win a game, but drew with Canada and only lost to Netherlands in the plate quarter-finals 6-3. 1998 saw them in 11, but this improved to 9 in 2002 and 2010.

Against their pool opponents they have lost both their games against Australia, have won three out of 19 against France, and three out of five against South Africa.

Wales are the youngest team at the tournament, with an average age of barely 26, and have two of the three the youngest players -?˜wing Elli Norkett (18 years) and centre Robyn Wilkins (19 years). Also, at just under 5' (152 cm) and just over 8st (52kg), Wales have the tournament's smallest player - scrumhalf Amy Day (she is less than half the weight of New Zealand prop Aleisha Nelson, and 50cm/15" shorter than Ireland's Marie Louise Reilly).

Women and girls in Wales are also more likely to play rugby than anywhere in Europe, apart from Ireland. Welsh girls are, on average, nearly three times more likely to play rugby than girls in England and five times more likely to play rugby than girls in France.

Nine of Wales' players are from Bristol RFC - who provide another six players to England and Ireland. Only Almaty SRC from Kazakhstan are sending more players to Paris.

Australia v South AfricaFrance v Wales

Australia v WalesFrance v South Africa

Wales v South AfricaAustralia v France

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