{"id":109389,"date":"2025-09-02T15:19:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T15:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/109389\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T15:19:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T15:19:07","slug":"world-rugby-urges-men-to-learn-from-womens-game-on-engaging-with-fans-womens-rugby-world-cup-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/109389\/","title":{"rendered":"World Rugby urges men to learn from women\u2019s game on engaging with fans | Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

The head of World Rugby<\/a> has urged the men\u2019s game to learn lessons from how players at the Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup have shown off their personalities and interacted more with fans.<\/p>\n

Alan Gilpin also suggested that World Rugby would be preparing a dossier of \u201cgreat facts and stats\u201d to show teams at the men\u2019s World Cup in 2027 that engaging more with supporters would not take the edge off their performances.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerceptions about our sport are being challenged, are being changed, and, in many cases, are being blown out of the water,\u201d said Gilpin. \u201cAnd we believe there\u2019s a real opportunity for the men\u2019s game to actually follow the lead. We\u2019re seeing greater accessibility and more personality creates more stars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Players have been posing for selfies, signing autographs and, in the case of Japan, even bowing to the crowd to show their support. Gilpin insisted that it was making a huge difference to the vibe of the tournament with 90% of fans \u2013 many of whom had never been to a rugby game before \u2013 saying they would return.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been involved in a lot of Rugby World Cups,\u201d said Gilpin. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve been involved in one with an atmosphere quite like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s the dancing between the teams after a match, the interaction with fans after the final whistle or their engagement individually on social media, it is a genie you can\u2019t put back very easily in the bottle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that we continue to see that in the women\u2019s game. And I hope that in the men\u2019s game there\u2019s some lessons or observations made of that. That it doesn\u2019t have to be a performance inhibitor. If something is engaging fans, and creating joy for the players, maybe it\u2019s something that can actually be a performance enablement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we get to the end of the tournament we\u2019ll have some great content, some great facts and stats to really share as we look forward to the men\u2019s edition in Australia in 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n

World Rugby also confirmed that four of the final group games this weekend were expected to be sold out, but conceded that the attention the tournament has received had led to some players being trolled on social media.<\/p>\n

One of those affected, the Wales No 8 Georgia Evans, insisted that the abuse would not lead to her changing appearance, which includes wearing ribbons in her hair and make-up during matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn an old-school, man\u2019s game, I\u2019m bringing a bit of Barbie to the party,\u201d she said in an Instagram post. \u201cTo those who don\u2019t like it, that\u2019s OK. To those who\u2019ve shown love and support \u2013 thank you. Don\u2019t worry, I won\u2019t be changing.<\/p>\n

Wales\u2019 No 8 Georgia Evans warms up ahead of the match against Canada last weekend. Photograph: Adrian Dennis\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bows in my hair, the tape on my arm, the eyelashes and full face of make-up I choose to wear \u2013 none of that affects my ability, passion, or fight for this game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yvonne Nolan, the competition director for the Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup, said that they were using the AI service from Signify to weed out abuse and highlight the worst cases. \u201cUnfortunately this is a societal issue, and unprecedented attention unfortunately brings some negatives with it,\u201d she added. \u201cWe don\u2019t accept it, we don\u2019t tolerate it, and we will take action where we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Nicky Ponsford, director of high performance at World Rugby, said that the statistics showed that the women\u2019s game was improving, with more action and less errors in the 2025 tournament compared to three years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cBear in mind, we\u2019ve increased from 12 to 16 teams. But we\u2019re still seeing significant increases in performance. We\u2019re seeing 22 more passes per match, so the quality of handling is improving, with three fewer knock-ons. There have also been 11 more rucks per match, three more kicks and three more tries per match.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The head of World Rugby has urged the men\u2019s game to learn lessons from how players at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-109389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}