2010 Women's Rugby World Cup

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2010 Women's Rugby World Cup

Tournament details
Host nation	England
Dates	20 August – 5 September 2010
No. of nations	12
Final positions
Champions	New Zealand (4th title)
Runner-up	England
Tournament statistics
Matches played	30
Top scorer(s)	Kelly Brazier (48)
Most tries	Carla Hohepa (7) Heather Moyse (7)
← 2006 2014 →

The 2010 Women's Rugby World Cup was the sixth edition of the Women's Rugby World Cup and was held in England.^[1] The International Rugby Board Executive Committee selected the host union following a recommendation from the Rugby World Cup Limited board after considering bids from the Rugby Football Union and the German Rugby Union – it had been England's third successive bid after being rejected in 2002 and 2006. The tournament was again being organised by the International Rugby Board (IRB) as opposed to the host union, and included five matches for all teams played on 20, 24, 28 August and 1 and 5 September. In May 2009 it was announced that the semi-final, 3rd place play off and final would take place at The Stoop and not Twickenham as had previously been suggested. Pool games were held at the Surrey Sports Park in Guildford.

Interest in the tournament was far higher than had been anticipated. It was broadcast to 127 countries and all 2,500 seats at the opening two days of pool games were sold out, as was the third day despite the capacity being raised to 3,200. The semi-finals attracted over 6,000 spectators, while the final drew a crowd of 13,253^[2] – a world record for a women's rugby international – and well as a worldwide TV audience of (according to IRB figures^[3]) half a million.

The competition was won by New Zealand who beat England 13–10 in the final.^[4]

Three tries from the tournament were shortlisted for the IRB's "Try of the Year" award.^[5]

The Rugby Football Union for Women and the Rugby Football Union along with Germany, South Africa and Kazakhstan made bids to host the 2010 Women's Rugby World Cup. On 23 September, Rugby World Cup Limited Board chairman, Bernard Lapasset, announced that England would host the World Cup at various venues across West London.^[6][7]

New Zealand, England and France qualified directly as the top three teams from the 2006 World Cup. Wales and Ireland qualified as second and third-place finishers in the 2009 Six Nations Championship. Scotland and Sweden qualified as the top two teams from the 2009 European Trophy. The United States, Canada and South Africa qualified directly as the only teams from their region. Kazakhstan qualified after winning the 2009 ARFU Women's Championship. Australia qualified as the second Oceania representative.

Africa	Americas	Europe	Oceania	Asia
South Africa (AQ)	Canada (AQ)  United States (AQ)	England (AQ)  France (AQ)  Wales  Ireland  Scotland  Sweden	New Zealand (AQ)  Australia	Kazakhstan

Tickets had been available since 22 March 2010 and they could be purchased online at Ticketmaster or by phone, with an innovative ticketing structure based on some tournament passes and individual match day tickets.^[8]
Thirteen matches were broadcast live through a platform provided by host broadcaster Sky Sports in 127 territories to a potential audience of 227 million homes, smashing the 2006 World Cup benchmark in Canada (75 territories and a potential reach of 97 million homes). The programming hours was increased from 60 in 2006 to 220 in this edition.^[9]
The commercial partners of the tournament were Nike, Heineken, the Coca-Cola Company's sports drink Powerade, Holiday Inn, British rugby equipment supplier Rhino Rugby, University of Surrey and UK National Lottery.

In December 2009, the IRB announced a panel of 14 match officials for the tournament, including seven world's leading female referees and three specialist assistant referees with previous Women's Rugby World Cup experience.^[10]
England's Clare Daniels officiated the opening match between Canada and Scotland, while Australian Sarah Corrigan refereed the final between England and New Zealand.^[11][12]

The competition was contested over 16 days and 30 matches between 12 nations, divided into three pools of four teams. The tournament began on 20 August at Surrey Sports Park with a match between Canada and Scotland and ended with the final held at Twickenham Stoop on 5 September between England and New Zealand.

Defending champions New Zealand, hosts and 2006 runners-up England and 2006 bronze winners France all ranked top seeds in their pool.^[13] Teams played each other in each pool on a round robin basis, while match points were awarded according to the international standards: 4 points for a win, 2 points for a draw, 1 point for scoring 4 or more tries or for losing by 7 or less than 7 points.
At the end of the pool stage, the teams in a pool were ranked according to their cumulative match points. If two or more teams had been level, the following criteria would have been used in this order until one of the teams could be determined as the higher ranked:

• the winner of the match between the two tied teams;
• the team with the best points difference;
• the team with the best tries difference;
• the team with more scored points;
• the team with more scored tries;
• a toss of coin.^[14]

The teams were seeded based on the position in which they finished in their respective pools and the points scored during the pool stage. The three pool winners and the best runner-up went through to the semi-finals. The other two runners-up and the best two 3rd-place finishers went into a sort of a competition for 5th place, whilst the bottom three teams competed for 9th place.
The ranking finals were set as it follows:

• 1st seed vs 4th seed;
• 2nd seed vs 3rd seed;
• 5th seed vs 8th seed;
• 6th Seed vs 7th seed;
• 9th seed vs 12th seed;
• 10th seed vs 11th seed.^[14]

If teams had been tied at full-time, the winner would have been determined through a 10-minutes extra time (the first team to score any points would have been declared the winner) or eventually a kicking competition (five players from each team would have kicked from three different points on the 22-metre line).^[14]

Qualified for rankings 1–4 semi-finals

Qualified for rankings 5–8 semi-finals

Qualified for rankings 9–12 semi-finals

Po	Nation	Pl	Wo	Dr	Lo	Pf	Pa	Pd	Tf	Ta	Bp	Tp
1	New Zealand	3	3	0	0	128	16	+112	22	2	3	15
2	Australia	3	2	0	1	93	44	+49	14	8	2	10
3	South Africa	3	1	0	2	18	127	−109	3	19	0	4
4	Wales	3	0	0	3	30	82	−52	4	14	1	1

Po	Nation	Pl	Wo	Dr	Lo	Pf	Pa	Pd	Tf	Ta	Bp	Tp
1	England	3	3	0	0	146	10	+136	22	2	3	15
2	Ireland	3	2	0	1	59	42	+17	11	6	2	10
3	United States	3	1	0	2	73	59	+14	11	10	1	5
4	Kazakhstan	3	0	0	3	3	170	−167	0	26	0	0

Po	Nation	Pl	Wo	Dr	Lo	Pf	Pa	Pd	Tf	Ta	Bp	Tp
1	France	3	3	0	0	55	24	+31	10	2	1	13
2	Canada	3	2	0	1	85	43	+42	12	7	2	10
3	Scotland	3	1	0	2	49	59	−10	8	9	1	5
4	Sweden	3	0	0	3	24	87	−63	2	14	1	1

	Semi-finals				Final
	1 September - Guildford
	South Africa	25
					5 September - Guildford
	Kazakhstan	10
					South Africa	17
	1 September - Guildford
					Wales	29
	Wales	32
	Sweden	10
					Third place
					5 September - Guildford
					Sweden	8
					Kazakhstan	12

	Semi-finals				Final
	1 September - Guildford
	Canada	41
					5 September - Guildford
	Scotland	0
					Canada	20
	1 September - Guildford
					United States	23
	Ireland	3
	United States	40
					Third place
					5 September - Guildford
					Scotland	8
					Ireland	32

	Semi-finals				Final
	1 September - London
	New Zealand	45
					5 September - London
	France	7
					New Zealand	13
	1 September - London
					England	10
	England	15
	Australia	0
					Third place
					5 September - London
					France	8
					Australia	22

Points	Team	Matches	Tries	Conversions	Penalties	Drops
186	New Zealand	5	30	15	2	0	6	0
171	England	5	25	17	4	0	1	0
146	Canada	5	20	14	6	0	7	0
136	United States	5	20	12	4	0	5	0
115	Australia	5	18	11	1	0	7	0
94	Ireland	5	16	4	2	0	4	0
91	Wales	5	15	5	2	0	3	0
70	France	5	12	2	2	0	6	0
60	South Africa	5	9	3	3	0	9	0
57	Scotland	5	9	3	2	0	1	0
42	Sweden	5	4	2	6	0	5	0
25	Kazakhstan	5	4	1	1	0	10	1

Points	Name	Team	Position	Appearances	Tries	Conversions	Penalties	Drops
48	Kelly Brazier	New Zealand	Centre/Wing	5	4	11	1	0
46	Anna Schnell	Canada	Fly-half	5	0	14	6	0
44	Christy Ringgenberg	United States	Full back	5	2	11	4	0
35	Carla Hohepa	New Zealand	Wing	5	7	0	0	0
35	Heather Moyse	Canada	Wing	5	7	0	0	0
34	Niamh Briggs	Ireland	Full back	5	4	4	3	0
30	Nichole Beck	Australia	Fly-half	4	1	11	1	0
28	Katy McLean	England	Fly-half	4	0	11	2	0
20	Charlotte Barras	England	Centre	4	4	0	0	0
20	Huriana Manuel	New Zealand	Centre	5	4	0	0	0
20	Mandy Marchak	Canada	Centre	5	4	0	0	0
20	Lucy Millard	Scotland	Centre	5	4	0	0	0
20	Cobie-Jane Morgan	Australia	Centre	5	4	0	0	0
20	Joy Neville	Ireland	No 8	4	4	0	0	0
20	Fiona Pocock	England	Wing	4	4	0	0	0
18	Zandile Nojoko	South Africa	Full back	5	1	3	2	0
17	Ulrika Anderson-Hall	Sweden	Fly-half	4	0	1	5	0

• Rugby World Cup
• Rugby World Cup Sevens

External videos
Rugby World Cup 2010: Semi-final - England v Australia on YouTube

• Women's RWC official website
• Women's RWC 2010 Qualifying