By Helena Byrne, Curator of Web Archives

New Zealand v Ireland 7th September 2025

The Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 has been a game changer for how the tournament moves forward. This edition of the tournament has broken all records with huge crowds at every match. For the first time ever the tournament final will be played at Twickenham. Getting tickets for the final is like gold dust. The capacity is 82,000 and will be the largest audience for any final in the history of the tournament. 

After some exciting rugby in the pool stages all eyes are set on this weekend's quarter finals. Unfortunately, Wales was the only team from the home nations and Ireland not to make it through. All eyes from home will be on the clash between England and Scotland. 

WRWC2025 an engagement at the Brighton & Hove venue

In total, over 245,000 fans attended the group games. The bigger crowds has meant there is more online content generated about this edition of the tournament. Due to the cyber-attack on the British Library in October 2023 the UK Web Archive is not accessible at the moment but we are still actively archiving and preserving websites.

To help preserve the online legacy of this major sporting event, the UK Web Archive has collaborated with other GLAM sector organisations, UK Sport and the Local Organising Committee to help spread the word that we want nominations from you to add to the collection.

Fill in this nomination form with your favourite UK web content related to the tournament here: https://forms.gle/tRKJvFsajM1XCXq37 

To find out more about what type of content you can nominate, read the blog post What to nominate for Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025.

Other blog posts in this series:

National Library of Scotland - https://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/webarchive/2025/08/collecting-thistles-archiving-scotland-at-the-rugby-womens-world-cup-2025.html 

National Library of Wales - https://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/webarchive/2025/08/collecting-for-the-womens-world-cup-2025-at-the-national-library-of-wales.html 

Public Record Office of Northern Ireland - https://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/webarchive/2025/09/womens-rugby-world-cup-2025-ireland.html 

By Niamh Dolan, Digital Preservation Team, PRONI

The Ireland women’s rugby team represents the whole island of Ireland encompassing both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The team’s highest finish in the Rugby World Cup was fourth place in 2014. This year, Ireland is competing in Pool C alongside New Zealand, Spain and Japan. Nominations for the UK Web Archive collection on the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 are open to the public and GLAM sector colleagues across the UK. The websites collected on behalf of PRONI highlight five players from Ireland’s 32-player squad who are either from Northern Ireland or play for the province of Ulster. These players are Neve Jones, Brittany Hogan, Fiona Tuite, Sadhbh McGrath and Claire Boles.

At 32 years old, Neve Jones stands out as the most seasoned player among the five, boasting 37 caps for Ireland. Originating from Ballymena, Co. Antrim, she has been playing in the hooker position for Gloucester Hartbury in England since her transfer from Malone RFC in 2022. Neve has been involved in rugby since the age of 6 and, at 5 feet 2 inches tall, she is typically the smallest player on the field.

Neve Jones, Copyright © INPHO/Bryan Keane

Brittany Hogan, who is 29 and hails from Killinchy, Co. Down, is another veteran with 34 caps for Ireland. She plays as a back row for Old Belvedere RFC and Ulster. Brittany is also a mental health advocate, serving as an ambassador for the ‘Tackle Your Feelings’ campaign in partnership with Rugby Players Ireland, and she represents Power NI, part of Energia Group, as one of their brand ambassadors.

Brittany Hogan, Copyright © 2025 – Six Nations Rugby Ltd

Fiona Tuite, also 29, is from Dublin and plays in the lock position for Old Belvedere RFC and Ulster, having earned 17 caps for Ireland. In her youth, she participated in Gaelic football and did athletics. Next summer she is set to marry her partner, Ulster prop Eric O’Sullivan.

Fiona Tuite, Copyright © 2025 – Six Nations Rugby Ltd

Sadhbh McGrath, from Buncrana, Co. Donegal, plays for Cooke RFC and Ulster. At just 20 years old, she has already earned 16 caps for Ireland in the prop position. In her earlier years, she played Camogie and Gaelic football, but it was her father who inspired her to try rugby.

Sadhbh McGrath, Copyright © 2025 - DonegalLive

Claire Boles, hailing from Enniskillen in Co. Fermanagh, represents Railway Union RFC and Ulster. Age 27 years old, she has earned 6 caps for Ireland and plays in the back row. Her father always thought she would excel in rugby, as her upbringing on a farm involved plenty of physical activity. Additionally, she serves as an ambassador for Parkinson’s Ireland.

Claire Boles, Copyright © 2025 - The Fermanagh Herald

If you want to join and help us preserve rugby history, then why not nominate a website for us to archive – it's free and easy to do – https://forms.gle/tRKJvFsajM1XCXq37 

For more tips on what to nominate read this blog post - https://blogs.bl.uk/webarchive/2025/07/what-to-nominate-for-womens-rugby-world-cup-2025-1.html

By Aled Betts, Welsh Print Acquisitions Librarian & Web Archivist

UK Web Archive Promotional Postcard on the Women's Rugby World Cup 2025

The UK Web Archive are collecting websites about the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025. One of the most anticipated opening fixtures saw Wales play Scotland on 23rd August at the Salford Community Stadium. Unfortunately, it was not a win for Wales.

The competition is held in England, but it is worth reminding ourselves that the first Rugby World Cup for women was held in 1991 in Cardiff. Looking back, it is pleasing to see how the women’s game has progressed and also the way that the Legal Deposit Libraries collect publications from these events has been revolutionized over a relatively short period of time.

As with other tournaments held in the UK, such as the 2021 Rugby League World Cup (held in 2022), much of the online material is published in the UK. This means we have permission to comprehensively acquire and preserve websites related to this tournament as the Legal Deposit Libraries are entitled to copy UK-published material from the internet for archiving under legal deposit.

The Legal Deposit Libraries are building a Collection containing websites on the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup. The Collection has subsections on ‘Organizations’, ‘Sponsors’, ‘Press Media’ and Comment’. It is a world away from the 1991 tournament that went ahead despite the disapproval of the International Rugby Board (IRB), the sport's governing body. France confirmed their participation only minutes before the draw and Scotland and Ireland were missing from the tournament. Sadly, there were no sponsors and press coverage in 1991.

You’d think things would have improved by the next tournament in 1994, but it didn’t. The event scheduled for Amsterdam was cancelled only weeks before and a replacement competition hastily organised. This time Scotland came to the rescue.

Looking forward to the Canada Wales fixture. There will be a bumper crowd in Salford, one of the 8 host cities. A sub-section to the Collection will also include ‘Cultural events’ welcoming visitors from all over the world. There was one host city in 1991 and that was Cardiff. Another reminder of the challenges in 1991 - the Soviet Union Rugby team were not allowed to take money out of their country and arrived with limited resources, relying on bartering goods such as vodka, champagne and caviar to support their time in Wales.

This blog post is a celebration of two things. Firstly, to the women's rugby game - it is now considered the fastest-growing sport in Wales, and this will be the biggest sporting tournament held in the UK this year. Secondly, to the way we collect publications for the Legal Deposit Libraries nowadays. We have very little preserved from the 1991 tournament in Wales. Today is different. Through the UK Web Archive, we are able to comprehensively collect millions of websites resulting in an invaluable tool for researchers of the future and preserving the history of this tournament. This will be reflected in the collection we are building for the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup.

If you want to join and help us preserve rugby history, then why not nominate a website for us to archive – it's free and easy to do – https://forms.gle/tRKJvFsajM1XCXq37 

For more tips on what to nominate read this blog post - https://blogs.bl.uk/webarchive/2025/07/what-to-nominate-for-womens-rugby-world-cup-2025-1.html