Who's stopping Ireland? Meet the World Cup Pool C opponents
PRICELESS RUBY: Ruby Tui of New Zealand celebrates after scoring a try during the O'Reilly Cup International Test Match between New Zealand Black Ferns and Australia Wallaroos at Sky Stadium on July 12, 2025 in Wellington, New Zealand. Pic: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images
None of Ireland’s Pool C opponents over the next three weekends will be strangers and, if New Zealand catch the eye, then it’s worth noting that results against Japan and Spain have produced wins and losses in recent times.
Here we run the rule over the opposition that will look to test Scott Bemand’s fifth-ranked in the world side in Northampton and Brighton with the top two to qualify for the quarter-finals.
Black Ferns
3
Winners 1998, 2002, ‘06, ‘10, ‘17, ‘22
Remember when the All Blacks had a reputation for peaking at precisely the wrong time, and then flopping at World Cups? Well, these Black Ferns are their mirror image. England have been the best team in the women’s game for some time but it’s the Kiwis get the job done.
Their defeats of the Red Roses in the last two finals were epic affairs and the expectation is that New Zealand will hit their stride again this time even if they have lost their last three games to the tournament hosts on a combined score of 106 points to 55.
They will certainly be a tougher proposition than the side that lost to Ireland at the WXV1s in Canada late last year, and not only because sevens stars Jorja Miller and Risi Pouri-Lane have been added to the collective for this one.
If anything speaks for their resources then it’s Ruby Tui, a star when they won on home soil in 2022, commentating for the BBC this time having lost out with the return from retirement of Portia Woodman-Wickliffe and wunderkind full-back Braxton Sorensen-McGee.
The expectation will be that the Kiwis contest another decider with England but the likelihood is that they will have to better a second-ranked Canadian team has beaten and drawn with them in Christchurch the last two years.
11
Sakura Fifteen
Quarter-final 1994
Japan’s women don’t have the same cohort of foreign-born players in their ranks as their male counterparts so they have looked inwards in an attempt to beef up their offering in a sport that is increasingly won and lost in contact.
Mark Bakewell was brought in last year as forwards coach and brought his pack into camp before the backs to rebuild the setpiece with improvements coming in the scrum, the maul and what had been a dodgy lineout.
That came on the back of a specialised camp for tight-five players that had been held during the previous domestic season which had focused on strengthening setpieces and physicality and there have been advances in the back line too.
Backs coach Berrick Barnes has worked on improving scoring opportunities near the opposition’s goal line and head coach Lesley McKenzie has already declared the squad the “best” they’ve ever had.
There have been encouraging results too. The USA were beaten for the first time this year, and on American soil and a five-match winning run was only ended by Italy, who they defeated in 2023, in Calvisano in the warm-ups.
This is a more experienced side than the one that lost all three games in 2002, they have pushed South Africa, Scotland and Wales close in WXV2 and they have declared their ambition to cause a shock and make it to the last eight.
Ireland beware.
Las Leonas (The Lionesses)
13
Quarter-final 1998
Everyone remembers how a last-ditch defeat to Scotland in Parma four years ago cost Ireland their place at the previous edition of the Women’s World Cup. What some forget is that it was a loss to Spain that set them up for the fall.
Lea Ducher, the replacement who scored the winning try inside the last ten minutes that day, is one of eight players from then who feature on this squad and its less than two years since Ireland scraped a 15-13 win against them in WXV3.
The Spanish have won at least one game at every World Cup they have played in but they failed to make New Zealand in 2022 despite that defeat of Ireland the year before and Japan have beaten them three times in a row of late.
There is experience in this team with four players, including prop and captain Laura Delgado, who played their first tournament back in 2014 and there is the promise of youth in full-back Claudia Pena who is only 20.
The Spanish have nine players who play their club rugby in the top tiers in England and France. Delgado is typical of the strength they have up front. Now on 50 caps, she has won two Premierships with Gloucester-Hartpury in the past.
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