Women's Rugby World Cup: Everything you need to know

Wales' Siwan Lillicrap, England's Sarah Hunter and Scoland's Rachel Malcolm stand with the Rugby World Cup trophy

The women's Rugby World Cup has started this weekend, with twelve nations battling it out to be declared world champions in New Zealand.

Three of the UK's home nations - England, Scotland and Wales - are competing in the rugby union tournament.

It looks as if this year's Rugby World Cup will bring record crowd numbers; more than 30,000 tickets sold for the opening day.

If you're a fan of rugby, read on to find out more!

What is the women's Rugby World Cup?

All of the competing teams hope to lift this trophy by the end of the tournament

This year is the ninth women's Rugby World Cup, with the tournament usually held every four years.

It was due to be held in 2021, but because of the coronavirus pandemic the tournament was pushed back until 2022.

Twelve teams will compete against one another in the city of Auckland in New Zealand. The World Cup is expected to take place over the course of a month.

All 26 matches will take place over weekends.

Kick-off at Auckland's Eden Park, featured an opening ceremony with singer Rita Ora.

The twelve teams have been divided into three pools - A, B and C. The four teams within each pool compete with one another, with the winner and second best going to the next round along with the two best-third-placed teams.

Many rugby commentators reckon England's Red Roses are the favourites to win the tournament this year, having won a record 25 Tests in a row.

The Red Roses will have some big challenges ahead of them though, competing on the home ground of the reigning champions - New Zealand's Black Ferns - who have won the world cup no less than five times to date!

Wales and Scotland will also need to keep their wits about them. They're pooled with two of the sport's strongest teams, New Zealand and Australia.

On Monday, all twelve teams were welcomed to New Zealand by the country's Governor-General Cindy Kiro in a ceremony in Auckland.

Dame Kiro said, "It's an honour to welcome rugby's finest wāhine toa (women champions) from around the world to Aotearoa (New Zealand) for this hugely anticipated Rugby World Cup."

Aotearoa is the Māori-language name for New Zealand - Māori are the indigenous population of the country.

What can we expect from the first weekend?

New Zealand's Black Ferns beat England's Red Roses in the 2017 Rugby World Cup final

Scotland, Wales and England all playing this weekend, and you can watch the matches in the UK on ITV and S4C.

But you might need to set your alarm quite early if you want to catch the games live!

Auckland is 13 hours ahead of the UK, so many of the matches are taking place overnight.

Are you excited to see the home nations play? Or maybe there's another team you're hoping to support?

Let us know in the comments below!