The contenders to derail England’s home World Cup

World number one, seven Six Nations titles in a row and a 25-Test winning streak in all competitions.

Heading into a home Women’s Rugby World Cup, no-one can dispute England deserve their title as tournament favourites.

A thrilling 43-42 victory over France at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham, may have secured a fourth consecutive Grand Slam on Saturday, but it also brought much-needed hope to all the chasing nations that the Red Roses are not invincible.

Les Bleues, who are ranked fourth in the world, bagged six tries and outscored John Mitchell’s side 21-12 in a second-half performance that exposed defensive frailties.

“England do have chinks and if you want to be the team that can beat them then there are ways to do that,” former England fly-half Katy Daley-McLean told BBC Rugby Union Weekly.

In 2022, Australia and New Zealand joined the United States and Canada to form a four-team competition that would serve as a qualifier for the newly-formed WXV.

The tournament, which ran without Australia and the Black Ferns in 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic, was first won by Canada, before New Zealand picked up the trophy in their debut season.

However, Canada produced an impressive 22-19 win over the world champions in Christchurch to win their second title last year and offer up a timely statement before WXV1.

Before playing England in a home WXV1 title decider in October, lock Tyson Beukeboom said Canada’s goal was to “win the World Cup next year”.

Errors proved costly as Canada, who are ranked second in the world despite being an amateur outfit, missed out on the opportunity to defeat the World Cup hosts, losing 21-12, but their performance added a serious contender to the mix.

All this was without influential captain Sophie de Goede, who is still recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament injury.

The Saracens number eight will likely to be back for the World Cup, where she will look to remind everyone why she is one of the best players in the world.

In March, Rugby Canada announced they were 30% of the way through a fundraising campaign to “win the Rugby World Cup 2025” in England, with the goal to raise $1m (£775,000).

If Canada and New Zealand win their World Cup pools and quarter-finals, they will face off in Bristol in the final four.

Victory for Canada would then potentially set up a re-run of the 2014 World Cup final with England, which England won 21-9.

Things haven’t gone to plan for Black Ferns head coach Allan Bunting since he was promoted from his assistant role after the team’s World Cup triumph on home soil in 2022.

Trying out new combinations and losing several players to injury contributed to defeats by Canada, France and England last year.

But this follows a similar pattern. A year out from the World Cup in 2022, the Black Ferns suffered heavy back-to-back defeats by England to raise doubts about their ability to retain their title.

Then seven months before the tournament, the Black Ferns appointed former New Zealand men’s head coach Wayne Smith to lead the women’s team, and his experience and guile helped steer the side to a sixth world title.

The big news this time round is the return of the World Cup’s record try-scorer, Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, who this month announced she would come out of international retirement to try and win a third straight World Cup.

Meanwhile, New Zealand wing Ruby Tui recently hinted “something new” is being planned by attack coach Tony Christie that will transform their chances of securing a seventh title in England.

Woodman-Wickliffe, 33, played most of her career on the wing, but featured at outside centre in the Grand Final of Super Rugby Aupiki, helping Blues Women secure the title.

Seven Black Ferns sevens players have also made themselves available for World Cup selection, including uncapped women’s world sevens player of the year nominee Jorja Miller and back-to-back Olympic gold medallist Risi Pouri-Lane.

Returning double World Cup-winners Theresa Setefano and Stacey Waaka are also eyeing a third triumph in a row.

Whether the new attacking strategy includes Woodman-Wickliffe and is used in Pacific Four Series remains to be seen – what is for sure is that you can never rule out New Zealand.

Australia, ranked sixth in the world, were hammered 41-5 by England in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in 2022 and remain a good way behind.

To have any chance of closing the gap they will need to call upon their sevens stars, which is proving difficult.

The Wallaroos hoped to secure the services of world sevens player of the year Maddison Levi, but the 23-year-old’s agent Mat Rogers believes the star is being “set up to fail”.

Levi broke the record for tries in a single Olympics (14) at the Paris Games in 2024, before signing for Queensland Reds to be part of the 2025 Super Rugby season.

Injuries and sevens commitments prevented the star making her XVs debut, with head coach Jo Yapp saying it now “wouldn’t be fair” to throw her straight into a Test environment.

Ilona Maher, who has over eight million followers on social media, was also involved in Paris and won a bronze medal with the United States.

The 28-year-old has since spent three months at Bristol Bears and is hoping to make her first appearance for USA XVs since 2021 after being named in their player pool for 2025.

Helped by ‘Maher mania’, the world’s number nine side have sold more than 7,500 tickets for their Pacific Four Series opener with Canada on 3 May in Kansas City.