WXV 2026 (F)

Auckland, 4 November 2023. England ran in five tries against New Zealand, won 33-12 and took the first WXV title off the side that had taken the 2021 World Cup final from them on that same soil. Marlie Packer was named player of the year that night. The competition was three weeks old.

The original format split 18 nations into three tiers of six, with four points for a win, two for a draw and bonuses for scoring four tries or losing by seven or fewer. Each tier was staged in a different country — New Zealand, South Africa and the UAE in 2023 — and winning your tier took you up: Italy climbed into the second tier after putting 23-0 on Spain. Scotland took that WXV 2 on points difference from the same Italians, and Ireland swept WXV 3 without losing a match.

Only two editions were played that way. There was no WXV in 2025, the calendar swallowed by the World Cup in England: it finished on 27 September at Twickenham in front of 81,885, a world record for a women's rugby match. By the time the competition came back, it was a different thing.

BC Place, 13 October 2024. Canada led twice and had England down to fourteen players in two separate spells of the second half. They lost anyway, 12-21. That result closed out England's second WXV 1 without a single defeat and stretched their winning run to twenty matches.

The tournament had run between Vancouver and Langley from 27 September to 13 October. England went through the United States, 61-21, and New Zealand, 49-31. Ireland had opened by beating the Black Ferns 29-27 and finished second on 10 points, one clear of Canada; New Zealand came fourth and the United States propped up the table without scoring a point.

In Cape Town, Australia won WXV 2 at the first attempt: 31-22 against Scotland at Athlone Sports Stadium, the first Scottish loss in that division. Italy took third on the head-to-head with South Africa, and Wales pushed Japan into last. In the UAE, Spain settled WXV 3 and a World Cup place with a 10-8 win over Fiji: Luisa Tisolo had the conversion to draw it with the last kick and sliced it wide. The Netherlands finished third after a 33-3 win over Hong Kong China.

On 26 September England host New Zealand at the Allianz Stadium, on the same grass as the 2025 World Cup final. It is one of 38 matches WXV spreads between 12 September and 31 October, from Hong Kong to Cape Town.

September belongs to Europe. Three kick off together on the 12th: England-Australia at the CorPacq Stadium in Salford, Scotland-Canada at the Hive in Edinburgh, France-New Zealand at Gerland in Lyon. Then come Wales-South Africa at Cardiff Arms Park, Ireland-United States at Tallaght, Italy-Japan at the Omero Tognon and France-Canada in La Rochelle.

October turns the map over and the Europeans repay the visit. Canada host England twice, at Toronto's BMO Field and Ottawa's TD Place; Australia take on Scotland at Stadium Australia and Canberra's GIO; Japan bring Wales to the Prince Chichibu in Tokyo; South Africa meet Ireland twice at Athlone; and France string three tests together in New Zealand, from Hamilton to Whangarei and on to Christchurch. England finish on 30 October in New Jersey.

The Challenger six gather at the Kai Tak Youth Sports Ground in Hong Kong: nine matches over three triple-headers, on Sunday the 13th and Saturdays the 19th and 26th of September. Spain defend what they won in Dubai, and Hong Kong China face Brazil, Fiji and Samoa at home.

Nobody lifts anything on 31 October. WXV stopped being a three-division tournament and split into two competitions, and the upper one has neither a single table nor a decider: the top twelve nations arrange cross-regional tours directly between unions, each plays between four and six matches, and nobody faces everybody. England will play six; Wales, Japan, Ireland, Italy and South Africa, four. Different schedules leave nothing to rank — and each union keeps the commercial rights to what it stages at home.

The lower one is a closed tournament. The six of the WXV Global Series Challenger are drawn into two pools of three, each playing the three teams from the other pool: nine matches, a single venue and World Rugby footing the bill, which is precisely what used to sink smaller unions asked to fund their own travel.

And there is no promotion or relegation. The split is frozen until 2028 and comes straight off the 2024 standings: the top twelve are the sides who played WXV 1 and WXV 2 that year, and the Challenger six are the WXV 3 field with Brazil in place of Madagascar. Three fixed years, more than a hundred matches and a route that ends at qualification for the 2029 World Cup. The women's-specific size 4.5 ball, already trialled on the sevens circuit, arrives in the fifteen-a-side game.