{"id":17245,"date":"2025-08-22T18:01:28","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T18:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=17245"},"modified":"2025-08-22T18:01:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T18:01:28","slug":"england-v-usa-womens-rugby-world-cup-2025-opening-game-live-womens-rugby-world-cup-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=17245","title":{"rendered":"England v USA: Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup 2025 opening game \u2013 live | Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Andy Bull\u2019s preview of this tournament covers the rapid changes women\u2019s rugby is seeing.<\/strong> A sobering reminder that teams once had to sell raffle tickets and vodka to fund their campaigns; now women are front and centre of the sport\u2019s global development.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe just want to play to out potential,\u201d says Sione Fukofuka, the USA head coach<\/strong>, with kick-off 40 minutes away. \u201cEngland are world No 1 for a reason, but we have our strike players and we want to unleash them today. Success for us looks like playing to our potential, pushing through the pool and into the knockout stages.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Maggie Alphonsi, the former England international, <\/strong>on the BBC predicts that the hosts and the USA to go through from Pool A. Interesting shout. Covering all bases; while possibly infuriating\/motivating Australia.<\/p>\n

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David Ward emails in, rightly warning me not to count any chickens:<\/strong> \u201cUmm \u2026 if (as many people supposedly say, although I doubt you have evidence) the England squad is both the best and second best side in the world how did they ever lose to New Zealand? This kind of pre-tournament journalistic\/media hubris is actually why in all sports England usually bottle the big occasions.\u201d Wise words, David! Merely trying to illustrate the strength of England\u2019s squad.<\/p>\n

The Black Ferns are absolutely England\u2019s bogey team in Women\u2019s Rugby World Cups at the best of times \u2013 the six-time world champions have beaten the Red Roses in the past two finals. Canada are also dangerous dark horses in this competition and France (despite the warm-up blowout defeat) lost by only one point to the Red Roses in the Women\u2019s Six Nations. England are not invincible.<\/p>\n

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Updated at\u00a013.48 EDT<\/p>\n

There will be in excess of 40,000 fans at the Stadium of Light for this match,<\/strong> which means it might well break the Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup attendance record \u2013 42,579 for the 2022 final won by the Black Ferns. But, of course, it won\u2019t hold that record for long: the 2025 final is already sold out.<\/p>\n

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Updated at\u00a013.33 EDT<\/p>\n

With kick-off an hour away, it\u2019s time to read a red-hot match preview.<\/strong> Sarah Rendell has broken down the World Cup opener, with intel such as:<\/p>\n

The two sides have played 21 times and the US have won one \u2013 the 1991 World Cup final. In 2025, the USA have played six games and won one, 31-24 against Fiji. England have played seven matches in this calendar year and have won all of them, extending their unbeaten run to 27 matches. While those predicting point to a big Red Roses win, the team are not getting caught up in the hype.<\/p>\n

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The teams<\/h2>\n

John Mitchell has named the same England XV that routed France<\/strong> 40-6 in their final warm-up match earlier this month. Zoe Harrison was likely to get the No 10 shirt anyway but Holly Aitchison still carrying a knock ends that debate; she isn\u2019t among the replacements yet.<\/p>\n

Strength in depth is the Red Roses\u2019 superpower rather than any individual star (I say, staring at a team sheet on which the first name is Ellie Kildunne; the reigning world player of the year).<\/p>\n

Do USA have any hope? Well, they have Hope Rogers \u2013 the Exeter Chiefs forward who won a place in the Premiership team of the year last season \u2013 plus the experience of Alev Kelter and Kate Zackary. Also, at No 13, Ilona Maher, who\u2019s turned down offers from Hollywood and even the WWE to play XVs rugby at a World Cup. How many people can say that?<\/p>\n

England: <\/strong>Ellie Kildunne; Abby Dow, Meg Jones, Tatyana Heard, Jess Breach; Zoe Harrison, Natasha Hunt; Hannah Botterman, Amy Cokayne, Maud Muir, Morwenna Talling, Abbie Ward, Zoe Aldcroft (capt), Sadia Kabeya, Alex Matthews.<\/p>\n

Replacements: Lark Atkin-Davies, Kelsey Clifford, Sarah Bern, Rosie Galligan, Maddie Feaunati, Lucy Packer, Emily Scarratt, Emma Sing.<\/em><\/p>\n

USA: <\/strong>Lotte Sharp; Emily Henrich, Ilona Maher, Alev Kelter, Bulou Mataitoga; McKenzie Hawkins, Olivia Ortiz; Hope Rogers, Kathryn Treder, Keia Mae Sagapolu, Tahlia Brody, Erica Jarrell-Searcy, Kate Zackary (capt), Georgie Perris-Redding, Rachel Johnson.<\/p>\n

Replacements: Paige Stathopoulos, Alivia Leatherman, Charli Jacoby, Rachel Ehrecke, Freda Tafuna, Cassidy Bargell, Kristin Bitter, Sariah Ibarra.<\/em><\/p>\n

Referee: Aimee Barrett-Theron (SA)<\/p>\n

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Preamble<\/h2>\n

So it begins. England go into a home Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup as by far the planet\u2019s outstanding side with an astonishing record of 57 wins in their past 58 Tests. But that one defeat? Yep, the last World Cup final to New Zealand, a setback the Red Roses will be desperate to correct at Twickenham in five weeks\u2019 time. But first they have to get there.<\/p>\n

The USA are England\u2019s opening opponent in Pool A, ranked 10th in the world but with the world\u2019s No 1 most famous rugby player in Ilona Maher. The Women\u2019s Eagles are major underdogs (under-eagles?) with a better record in sevens than XVs \u2013 they won a bronze medal at the last Olympics, beating a Great Britain side en route \u2013 but pressure can do funny things.<\/p>\n

England romping to Six Nations and WXV titles is one thing; a home World Cup with all the expectation of not only victory but inspiring a new generation of fans is another. The coach, John Mitchell, has said \u201cevery team will rise 10% or 15% in this tournament\u201d when facing the hosts but added that his team don\u2019t mind \u201cbeing hunted\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sione Fukofuka\u2019s physical, hard-running USA side are the hunters at the Stadium of Light. They\u2019ll know their up against it \u2013 it\u2019s sometimes said that the best women\u2019s team in the world is England, the second best is England B (pin that up in the dressing room, Sione). But a competitive showing will set them up for their crunch match: a clash with Australia, likely to decide second place and qualification from Pool A, with Samoa the group\u2019s outsiders. For England, only a dominant win will do. Kick-off is at 7.30pm BST<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature Andy Bull\u2019s preview of this tournament covers the rapid changes women\u2019s rugby is seeing. A sobering reminder that teams once had to sell raffle tickets and vodka to fund their campaigns; now women are front and centre of the sport\u2019s global<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[130,311,413,132,2894,5871,882,1214,550],"class_list":{"0":"post-17245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-cup","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-game","11":"tag-live","12":"tag-opening","13":"tag-rugby","14":"tag-usa","15":"tag-womens","16":"tag-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}