{"id":375702,"date":"2025-12-28T09:07:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T09:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/375702\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T09:07:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T09:07:07","slug":"i-was-there-red-roses-lifted-the-rugby-world-cup-with-a-roar-like-no-other-womens-rugby-world-cup-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/375702\/","title":{"rendered":"I was there: Red Roses lifted the Rugby World Cup with a roar like no other | Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recalling the moment that England\u2019s captain, Zoe Aldcroft, lifted the Rugby World Cup<\/a> still brings goosebumps. Twickenham was bathed in September sunshine, there was not one empty green seat and when the Gloucester-Hartpury star raised the silverware with gold streamers and fire pyrotechnics, the roar from the crowd was a sound unmatched at any other women\u2019s rugby game I have attended.<\/p>\n

England had rewarded the home fans as they executed the perfect gameplan against Canada, the in-form team who were the underdogs despite knocking out the six-time champions New Zealand<\/a> in the semi-final. The stadium was sold out with a women\u2019s rugby record of 81,885 creating an electric atmosphere. Future World Cup finals will be sell-outs with a party-feel celebration but I am unsure if anything will be able to replicate the feeling on 2025 final day for everyone invested in women\u2019s rugby. There was a sense of overwhelming emotion of what the sport has grown into over the past few years. Now, the women\u2019s game can not only sell-out the biggest venues but also provide box office action and deliver an unforgettable experience.<\/p>\n

Coming in from Bath, I took the train to get some prep done on the way and to experience the atmosphere. Over the past few years trains have become increasingly crowded travelling to a Red Roses match but this was different. Little girls were getting roses painted on their faces, space was at a premium due to the sheer number of fans, while groups of families were discussing players such as Ruahei Demant \u2013 who played in New Zealand\u2019s bronze-winning game against France earlier in the day before the final.<\/p>\n

The occasion was a large part of the day but the final itself was also a great advert for the sport. Canada were first to score, courtesy of the brilliant wing Asia Hogan-Rochester. That was before Ellie Kildunne added her electric attack from full-back for the hosts, causing deafening cheers from the stands. There are many star players in the Red Roses squad but only Kildunne evokes the x-factor reaction<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From that moment England were on top. They didn\u2019t have it all their own way, especially when Hannah Botterman received a yellow card in the second half. When she was sent to the sin-bin there was a momentum shift with people looking left and right thinking: \u201cWill England lose a final again?\u201d having lost six previous World Cup finals. But the team weathered the storm. Such was England\u2019s dominance that my colleague Rob Kitson turned to me with around 15-20 minutes left after the Red Roses had won a scrum penalty right by Canada\u2019s line and said: \u201cEngland have just won the World Cup.\u201d He was right.<\/p>\n

As soon as the final whistle blew my mind immediately went to the wider impact<\/a> England\u2019s victory would have; not only the spike in league attendances but also on grassroots rugby and the shift in societal attitudes towards women playing rugby.<\/p>\n

Ellie Kildunne was in superb form in the World Cup as England roared to win the trophy. Photograph: Richard Lee\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

The Canada press conference was gloomy given their missed chance at making history and winning the trophy for the first time. Minutes later, at the England press conference, Aldcroft had the press chuckling as she sat down and took a picture of the media with a disposable camera. \u201cEllie Kildunne gave each of us one of these at the start of the tournament but I\u2019ve only started taking pictures today,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

I left the stadium five hours after the final whistle following a few drinks to toast the tournament but I was struggling to find a gate that was still open. All the fans had wandered down into various Twickenham pubs by then and so I walked solo until I came across Aldcroft having a moment alone with her husband, Luke, away from the Red Roses party which was roaring on a few metres away in a function room. \u201cHow do I get out of here, Zoe?\u201d I asked. \u201cI have absolutely no idea,\u201d she said back with a huge grin on her face. \u201cNo worries, congratulations again,\u201d I replied. \u201cThank you so much, get home safe\u201d. I did eventually manage to find a way out of Twickenham, much like England had finally found a way to lift the Rugby World Cup again for the first time since 2014.<\/p>\n

The image for the next generation of players will be that of Aldcroft jumping back and forth with the trophy. It was a game-changing moment which will forever mark the milestone for when women\u2019s rugby broke through into the mainstream in the history books.<\/p>\n

This article is the fourth in a series from our correspondents on the most memorable moments of 2025. Next: how Europe won the Ryder Cup in a thriller<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Recalling the moment that England\u2019s captain, Zoe Aldcroft, lifted the Rugby World Cup still brings goosebumps. Twickenham was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-375702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}