How England 2025 boomed into biggest Women's Rugby World Cup ever

The accessibility of the game's stars and the matches themselves have been key to the success of this Women's Rugby World Cup

Women's Rugby World Cup final: England v Canada

Venue: Allianz Stadium, Twickenham Date: Saturday 27 September Kick-off: 16:00 BST

Coverage: Live on BBC One, BBC Radio 5 Live and the BBC Sport website and app

However they do as a team in Saturday's final, England have been a hit as hosts of the Women's Rugby World Cup.

With Twickenham's 82,000-capacity Allianz Stadium sold out for the finale of this year's competition, a new record will be set for the biggest crowd in women's rugby history.

It means the tournament will finish how it started.

On the opening day of the tournament back in August, another record was broken as England's match against the United States drew 42,723 people, surpassing the 2022 final as the best-attended match in Women's Rugby World Cup history.

In total, 440,000 tickets have been sold for the tournament, more than three times the number at the previous Women's Rugby World Cup three years ago.

With 470,000 tickets available for the 32 games, it means the tournament ran at nearly 94% capacity.

It has been achieved by competitive pricing, clever scheduling and promoting personalities beyond the Red Roses.

Tickets have started at £10 for adults and £5 for children, while games have been spread so that, by World Rugby's calculations, 95% of the English population are within two hours travel of a tournament venue.

While the most recent men's Rugby World Cup staged some pool matches on weekday evenings, every match, after this tournament's Friday night opener, was played at the weekend making it easier for families and young fans to attend.

Double-header weekends - when fixtures were played in the same city, occasionally even on the same day - were created to bolster numbers at less attractive fixtures.

For instance, minnows Brazil, far from home and with a low profile, had all three of their pool-stage fixtures put on in the immediate build-up or aftermath of a bigger fixture at the same stage, with Ireland, New Zealand and France helping shine a spotlight their way.

Content creators were embedded with all the teams to produce off-pitch content that connected with fans with stories, teams and players they may not have known before.

A video of Australia's 18-year-old full-back Caitlyn Halse being hauled up into the stands in York by her father was viewed more than 13m times on Rugby World Cup's TikTok account.

There was a shift to rugby's traditional hotbeds for the knockout stages, delivering the biggest crowds for the biggest matches.

The quarter-finals were a south-west affair, split between Exeter's Sandy Park and Bristol's Ashton Gate. The semi-finals - both staged in Bristol - attracted a combined total of 49,870 people.

Saturday's crowd will surpass the 58,498 who watched England beat France at the same stadium in the 2023 Six Nations - the previous record for a 15-a-side match - and the 66,000 who watched the women's rugby sevens at Stade de France during the 2024 Olympics in Paris.