Big guns through to Women's Rugby World Cup quarter finals

Image: Ellie Kildunne of England is tackled by Adiana Talakai (L) and Lydia Kavoa of Australia during the Women's Rugby World Cup 2025 Pool A match between England and Australia at Brighton & Hove Albion Stadium on September 06, 2025 in Brighton, England. (Photo by Alex Davidson - World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images)

With the conclusion of the group stages over the weekend, the identity of the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 quarter-finalists has now been settled.

Two of the home nations – England and Scotland - have progressed to the next stage of the competition and will meet in the quarter finals on Sunday 14th September. However a third defeat for Wales meant that their World Cup journey has come to an end.

The quarter final line-ups contain no real surprises, with seven of the top eight ranked teams featuring. The only exception in the knock out stage is tenth-ranked South Africa, although the gap in ratings points terms between them and the two teams above them, Italy and the USA, is so small as to be effectively meaningless.

England progressed thanks to a hard-fought, but ultimately comfortable 47-7 win over Australia, who also made it out of the group stage. England have now won a record 30 consecutive test victories.

I thought our defence was outstanding, At times we were a bit ugly in attack, and that's something within our own control…I haven't thought that far ahead [to the quarter-final against Scotland] to be honest. It's great to see them [Scotland] performing well in the tournament and it's great that two nations who have such rich rugby histories will be in a World Cup quarter-final.

John Mitchell - England head coach

Scotland progressed despite their 40-19 defeat by second seeds Canada at Exeter’s Sandy Park. Scotland Head Coach, Bryan Easson, said that he was satisfied with hitting their target of qualifying for the last eight.

We have done that. We came to qualify for the quarter-finals. We knew this would be a very difficult game for us. We’ve got the quarter-finals, we’re top six in the world so I would say we’re making real progress.

Bryan Easson – Scotland Head Coach

For their part, Wales were frustrated to fall to a narrow 25-28 defeat to Fiji. It was a day of ‘what if’ for Welsh kicker Keira Bevan, who failed to convert five of her team’s trues.

The shock of the round, however, was undoubtedly France’s 57-10 drubbing of South Africa. The impressive performance of the women's Springboks in their first two matches meant that France came into the tie as underdogs, but their four first half ties effectively ended the game as a contest by the break.

We can now look forward to a tasty set of quarter final games next weekend, at Exeter’s Sandy Park and Bristol’s Ashton Gate. While the tournament so far has delivered plenty of excitement and action, this is the point at which the big guns will face off in anger. It should be a cracking weekend of rugby.

Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 Quarter Finals

Quarter-final 1: New Zealand v South Africa

Sandy Park at 13:00 on Saturday, 13 September.

Quarter-final 2: Canada v Australia

Ashton Gate at 16:00 on Saturday, 13 September.

Quarter-final 3: France v Ireland

Sandy Park at 13:00 on Sunday, 14 September.

Quarter-final 4: England v Scotland

Ashton Gate at 16:00 on Sunday, 14 September.