LONDON \u2014 England finally has a Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup title to confirm its world domination after outclassing Canada 33-13 in front of a record crowd at Twickenham on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Victory by five tries to three capped an astonishing World Cup cycle in which England won every match, 33 in a row, the greatest streak in international rugby.<\/p>\n
England had lost the last two finals, and five of the last six.<\/p>\n
But this final, drawing 81,885 people, the largest crowd in women\u2019s rugby history, was a showcase of England\u2019s power and pace and gave the tournament host its third World Cup title after triumphs in 1994 and 2014.<\/p>\n
Canada bossed everyone, including defending champion New Zealand in the semifinals, en route to its first final in 11 years, validating its No. 2 ranking and unbeaten run this year.<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s Asia Hogan-Rochester scored a pair of tries Saturday. Sophie de Goede, who was named the 2025 World Rugby Player of the Year after the match, added a penalty kick, but missed a pair of two-point conversion attempts.<\/p>\n
Canada sought its first title after also falling to England in the 2014 championship game.<\/p>\n
But the best offloading team in the tournament couldn\u2019t get its game going, crashing into England\u2019s defence.<\/p>\n
England saved its best performance for its most important match since the 2022 World Cup final, when it last tasted defeat. In fact, that loss to New Zealand by 34-31 is England\u2019s only loss in six years.<\/p>\n
England set the tone for the final at the first scrum, shoving Canada backward. The English outmuscled Canada all afternoon.<\/p>\n
And yet, as it has in every game, Canada scored first, glitter-faced right wing Hogan-Rochester from a two-on-one.<\/p>\n
The lead lasted only three minutes. Fullback Ellie Kildunne, out of nothing, broke a tackle, stepped a couple more and scorched the cover to score behind the posts.<\/p>\n
Canada tried running from its own try-line, knocked on in its half, and England turned it into pressure and another lineout drive try for hooker Amy Cokayne, who scored three similar tries in the 2022 final.<\/p>\n
An intercept on halfway by Tatyana Heard was the origin of England\u2019s next try, by No. 8 Alex Matthews, playing in her fourth straight final.<\/p>\n
Canada had to score next and laid siege to England\u2019s try-line, but the ball was poached by England captain Zoe Aldcroft. An admission to its struggle to break England\u2019s lines was Canada\u2019s decision to kick a penalty while 21-5 down.<\/p>\n
That conceded ground from the kickoff to England, which earned a penalty and set up another lineout drive. But a second try for Cokayne was chalked off because of obstruction. Still, England finished the half on top when prop Hannah Botterman got her second jackal penalty and roared in delight.<\/p>\n
The second half was more of the same. Lock Abbie Ward scored after a Matthews burst from a five-meter scrum.<\/p>\n
Hogan-Rochester got her second try for Canada while Botterman was in the sin-bin, but a second period of sustained pressure by Canada died from a knock-on in front of the England posts, making Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney put his head in his hands.<\/p>\n
England put the finishing touches on a powerful win when a spiral bomb spun back into its hands and Matthews ended up scoring her second try.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 27, 2025.<\/p>\n
The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON \u2014 England finally has a Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup title to confirm its world domination after outclassing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,82,88249],"class_list":["post-173581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-womens-rugby-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}