World Cup pools confirmed
The pools for the Women's Rugby World Cup in 2017 have been drawn today in Ireland.
Published by Alison Donnelly, November 9th, 2016
2 minute read
Pool A sees Canada, New Zealand, Wales and the qualifier from Asia/Oceania 2 involved; Pool B includes defending champions England, USA, Italy and the final European Qualifier, while Pool C involves hosts Ireland, Australia, 6 Nations champions France and the other qualifier from Asia/Oceania 1.
The remaining three qualifiers will be determined by the end of 2016 and they are as follows: Fiji, Japan and Hong Kong will compete in a three match round-robin tournament to be played over December 9, 13 and 17 in Hong Kong. The top two teams will qualify for WRWC 2017.The last-placed Six Nations team from the combined 2015 and 2016 rankings, Scotland, will play two matches, home and away, against the winners of the Rugby Europe competition (Spain) on Friday, November 18 in Scotstoun, Glasgow and Saturday, November 26 in Madrid, with the overall winners qualifying for WRWC 2017.
With its 12 team format, the Women's World Cup rarely offers up "easy" pools, but possibly England, of the top seeds, have fared best. While games with Italy and the USA will be, quite literally, bruising, they are teams they will expect to beat alongside either Spain or Scotland.
New Zealand v Canada already has the look of being one of the key games of the pool stages, while Ireland face a tough battle to top their pool with France likely to pose the toughest challenge and with Australia continuing a rebuild that makes them uncertain but still dangerous opponents.
The competition takes place from August 9th to 26th next year, with the pool games taking place in University College Dublin between the 9th and 17th August and the play-off games and Finals set to be played in Belfast at Queens University and Kingspan Stadium.