Women's international rugby union

Women's rugby union has a history going back to the late 19th century but it was not until 1982 that the first international fixture (or "Test Match") took place. The match was organised in connection with the Dutch Rugby Union's 50th anniversary. As part of the celebrations on June 13, 1982 the French national women's team was invited to Utrecht to play the Dutch, France winning 4-0^[1] in a game that has since been recognised as the first ever women's international^[2] rugby union match.

Official recognition of women's internationals was not immediate. Almost all women's rugby was originally organised outside of the control of either national unions or World Rugby (WR). Partly as a result no internationally agreed list of rugby internationals exists. However, even in the men's game, WR does not decide which matches are "full internationals" (or "test matches"), leaving such decisions up to participating unions.

As a result, one country may classify a match as a full international (and award full test caps) while the opposition may not - countries may even award caps for games against an opposition that is not a national team (World XVs, for example).^[3]

International rugby initially grew slowly.^[4] Sweden joined France and the Netherlands in 1984, followed by Italy in 1985, but it was not until 1987 that the first international took place outside Europe. However, since 2003 the game has expanded rapidly and now over 50 nations have played at least one "test match".

Over 1000 internationals have now been played. Traditional centres of rugby New Zealand, England and France have been the most successful nations, but they have been joined by a number of "non-traditional" nations who have been almost as successful, such as the USA and Kazakhstan. Unlike men's rugby, there was historically no official ranking of women's teams — prior to 2016, WR generally referred to the placings in the preceding World Cup. However, Rugby Europe compiles an annual ranking of European teams and rugby statistician Serge Piquet has produced a currently unofficial, but generally accepted, world ranking list. Another ranking list appears on The Roon Ba website [1].

On 1 February 2016, WR introduced its first official rankings of women's national teams, calculated in virtually the same manner as the existing rankings for men's national teams.^[5]

International women's matches

Definition of an "international":

Individual unions compile their own international records. As a result, the list below will conflict with some of these "official" records (much in the same way as they will conflict with each other) as unions:

may not include some games in their official records because they fielded a below strength team in a tournament for full international XVs, or
may include games which are not listed below because they fielded a full strength team in a friendly against an unofficial or "A" team.

For consistency this list has used the following criteria when defining what is or is not an international:

Tournament games between national representative XVs from tournaments for full international teams, regardless of an individual union's selection policy;
"Friendly" fixtures which it appears were generally promoted prior to the game as being between full strength national XVs. In case of doubt the opinion of the home union - i.e. the promoter of the game - has carried the most weight.
Fixtures between official national selections and supra-national teams (such as "World XVs").

Full internationals and tournaments

Each match below is prefixed by a unique running number, has a three number suffix indicating how many games each team had played up to this point, and how many games had been played between the two sides. For example: Template:Wrugbybox

indicates that this was not only the 74th women's international, it was the second played by Scotland, the 13th played by Wales, and the first between the two sides.

A list of games involving advertised "A" teams and other games of doubtful international status is also appended after the main list.

1982

Tournaments

None

Other matches Template:Wrugbybox

1983

Tournaments

None

Template:Wrugbybox

Other internationals

The following is a list of...

Matches involving designated national "A" teams,
Matches of doubtful status,
Matches between full international sides and non-national XVs, and
Other games of note.

It is included as some nations have awarded full caps for these games and may include them as full internationals in their own records. In addition these games act as an indicator of the relative strength of some of the smaller nations, and the strength in depth of the larger.

Highest team scores

141	Netherlands v Denmark (141-3) at Toulouse 02/05/2004 FIRA [445]
134	New Zealand v Germany (134-6) at Amsterdam 02/05/1998 World Cup [192]
121	United States v Germany (121-0) at Melrose 15/04/1994 World Cup [086]
119	Spain v Finland (119-0) at University of A Coruña 30/04/2011 FIRA [885]
117	New Zealand v Germany (117-0) at Barcelona 13/05/2002 World Cup [360]
113	Netherlands v Denmark (113-0) at Amsterdam 08/05/2003 FIRA [413]
111	United States v Sweden (111-0) at Melrose 11/04/1994 World Cup [080]
110	England U20 v USA U20 (110-0) at Brunel University 18/07/2009 U20 Nations Cup [---]
109	New Zealand v France (109-0) at Edmonton 14/09/1996 Canada Cup [143] France A v Finland (109-3) at INEF Bastiaqueiro 04/05/2011 FIRA [---]
105	Netherlands v Belgium (105-0) at Amsterdam 08/04/2001 Friendly [308] Netherlands v Finland (105-0) at Enkoping 03/05/2012 FIRA [937]
101	England v South Africa (101-0) at Imber Court 14/05/2005 Friendly [495]
100	Netherlands v Belgium (100-0) at Enkoping, Sweden 17/05/2009 FIRA [737]
99	France v Japan (99-0) at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh 17/04/1994 World Cup [093]
97	Spain v Czech Republic (97-0) at Madrid 09/10/2016 FIRA [1153]
92	Uganda v Rwanda (92-0) at Kigali 25/02/2005 Friendly [482] Trinidad and Tobago v Caribbean Select (92-0) at Grand Cayman 10/7/11 NACRA [892] British Lionesses v British Services (92-0) at Bournemouth 12-04-2009 [---]
91	England v Netherlands (91-3) at Belluno 19/04/1999 FIRA [243] Kazakhstan v Singapore (91-7) at Almaty 4/9/13 ARU [1010]
90	Sweden v Belgium (90-0) at Lille 09/05/2001 FIRA [317]
	Trinidad and Tobago v St Vincent (90-0) at Bridgetown, Barbados 21/06/2009 NAWIRA [751]
	New Zealand v Samoa (90-12) at Auckland 10/06/2014 Friendly [1048]
89	England v Scotland (89-0) at Twickenham 18/03/2011 Six Nations [878]
88	New Zealand v Canada (88-3) at Edmonton 08/09/1996 Canada Cup [139] New Zealand v USA (88-8) at Edmonton 11/09/1996 Canada Cup [141] Scotland v Combined Services (88-20) at Edinburgh 18/10/2015 Friendly [---]
87	United States v Netherlands (87-0) at Barcelona 13/05/2002 World Cup [362]
	Australia v Samoa (87-0) at Apia 08/08/2009 World Cup [760]
86	England v Spain (86-3) at Madrid 11/02/2006 Six Nations [523]
84	England v Germany (84-0) at Hï¿½rth 31/08/1997 Friendly [171]: United States v Russia (84-0) at Amsterdam 02/05/1998 World Cup [191]: Netherlands v Norway (84-0) at San Dona Di Piave 23/04/2006 FIRA [540] Scotland v Russia (84-0) at Enkï¿½ping, Sweden 17/05/2009 FIRA [739]
83	Netherlands v Germany (83-0) at Maastricht 18/04/2010 Friendly [811] Wales v Russia (83-7) at Amsterdam 05/05/1998 World Cup [199]: England v Wales (83-11) at Swansea 10/04/1999 Five Nations [239]
82	England v Kazakhstan (82-0) at Surrey Sports Park 24/08/2010 World Cup [846] Japan v Hong Kong (82-0) at Almaty 4/9/13 ARU [1009]
81	England v Wales (81-0) at Cardiff Arms Park 04/02/2005 Six Nations [474]: Uganda v Rwanda (81-0) at Kampala 10/12/2005 Friendly [516]: Hong Kong v Malaysia (81-0) at Royal Selangor Club, Kuala Lumpur 19/12/2010 Friendly [865]:
80	England v Sweden (80-3) at Amsterdam 18/05/2008 FIRA [678]: Switzerland v Finland (80-3) at Unterägeri 08/03/2014 Friendly [1033]:
79	England v Ireland (79-0) at Worcester 17/02/2002 Six Nations [346]: Canada v Spain (79-0) at St Albert 04/09/2006 World Cup [565] Trinidad and Tobago v Cayman Islands (79-0) at Georgetown, Guyana 10/05/2008 NAWIRA [675] New Zealand v Kazakhstan (79-5) at St Albert 01/08/2014 World Cup [1057]
78	Netherlands v Norway (78-0) at Toulouse 05/05/2004 FIRA [447]: Japan v Hong Kong (78-0) at Bangkok 03/06/2005 World Cup Qualifier [502] Trinidad and Tobago v Barbados (78-0) at Bridgetown 24/06/2009 NAWIRA [752]
77	Wales v Germany (77-0) at Barcelona 17/05/2002 World Cup [368] England U20 v Scotland U20 (77-0) at Gosforth 12-3-2011 Fiendly [---]
76	United States v Ireland (76-0) at Boroughmuir 17/04/1994 World Cup [091] New Zealand v Scotland (76-0) at Amsterdam 05/05/1998 World Cup [200] Cayman Islands v St Vincent (76-0) at Bridgetown 24/06/2009 NAWIRA [753] England v Spain (76-0) at Imber Court 12/03/2005 Six Nations [483] England v Scotland (76-0) at Esher 02/02/2013 Six Nations [970] England v Italy (76-6) at Rome 09/02/2008 Six Nations [657] Spain v Belgium (76-0) at Madrid 06/10/2016 FIRA [1151]
75	England v Sweden (75-0) at Amsterdam 02/05/1998 World Cup [189]: Germany v Norway (75-0) at Amsterdam 08/05/2003 FIRA [414]
74	Russia v Bosnia/Herz (74-0) at Zenica 21/05/2005 FIRA [498]: England v South Africa (74-8) at Edmonton 04/09/2006 World Cup [564] Spain v Germany (74-0) at Stockholm, Sweden 17/05/2009 FIRA [740] Russia v Belgium (74-5) at Madrid 15/10/2016 FIRA [1157]
73	New Zealand v Canada (73-0) at Palmeston North 16/10/1999 Triangular ï¿½99 [256]: Belgium v Luxembourg (73-0) at Leuven 11/04/2007 FIRA [612]: England v Italy (73-7) at Toulouse 02/05/2004 FIRA [443] Ireland v Scotland (73-3) at Cumbernauld 22/03/2015 Six Nations [1107]
72	Wales v Netherlands (72-5) Venue unknown (Wales) 15/01/2001 Friendly [295]: England v Canada (72-6) at Amsterdam 05/05/1998 World Cup [196] England v Scotland (72-3) at London Welsh 21/3/2009 Six Nations [733]
71	England v Spain (71-3) at Zaragoza 15/2/2004 Six Nations [427]

World Rugby Rankings (women)

World Rugby Rankings (women)
full ranking as on 7 November 2016
Rank	Change*	Team	Points
1		New Zealand	91.94
2		Canada	87.04
3		England	86.44
4		France	84.23
5		Ireland	82.89
6		Australia	79.88
7		United States	77.96
8		Italy	77.72
9		Spain	76.60
10		Wales	74.64
11		Samoa	68.72
12		South Africa	68.51
13		Scotland	65.64
14		Netherlands	64.17
15		Portugal	64.00
16		Kazakhstan	62.22
17		Japan	60.93
18		Sweden	59.73
19		Russia	58.47
20		Germany	58.15
21		Belgium	53.95
22		Trinidad and Tobago	52.45
23		Hong Kong	51.86
24		China	46.71
24		Denmark	46.68
26		Jamaica	46.52
27		Guyana	45.63
28		Romania	44.95
29		Norway	44.86
30	2	Fiji	44.41
31	1	Kenya	44.35
32	1	Bosnia and Herzegovina	44.00
33		Thailand	42.35
34		Singapore	41.68
35		Uzbekistan	41.40
36		Cayman Islands	40.95
37		Switzerland	40.91
38		Tonga	40.05
39	1	Uganda	39.65
40	1	Papua New Guinea	39.54
41		Luxembourg	38.83
42		Finland	38.82
43		Brazil	38.00
44		Serbia	37.79
45		Barbados	36.06
46		Saint Vincent & the Grenadines	34.71
47		Bahamas	33.67
48		Philippines	30.00
49		Czech Republic	28.70
*Change from the previous week
Complete rankings at worldrugby.org

The World Rugby Rankings for women is a ranking system for women's national teams in rugby union, managed by World Rugby, the sport's governing body. The teams of World Rugby's member nations are ranked based on their game results, with the most successful teams being ranked highest. A point system is used, with points being awarded based on the results of World Rugby-recognized international matches. The women's rankings are calculated in the same manner as WR's existing men's rankings, with minor adjustments to reflect historic differences between women's and men's rugby.

Women's Test Ranking (unofficial)

Unofficial Women World Ranking
5 November 2016
Rank	Change*	Team	Points
1		England	5302
2		Canada	5236
3	1	New Zealand	5183
4	1	France	5174
5		Ireland	4977
6		United States	4968
7		Wales	4771
8		Italy	4555
9	1	Australia	4453
10	1	Scotland	4393
11		Spain	4208
12		South Africa	4160
13		Samoa	3437
14		Kazakhstan	3264
15		Netherlands	3070
16		Sweden	2826
17		Russia	2340
18		Japan	2297
19		Belgium	2264
20		Hong Kong	2171
21		Germany	1988
22		Switzerland	1972
23		Finland	1458
24		Czech Republic	1423
25		Singapore	1404
26		Kenya	1193
27		Uganda	1110
28		China	913
29		Norway	878
30		Trinidad and Tobago	834
31		Romania	778
32		Fiji	750
33		Cayman Islands	656
34		Thailand	643
35		Uzbekistan	621
36		Jamaica	613
37		Denmark	606
38		Tonga	509
39		Philippines	494
40		Luxembourg	472
41		Malaysia	459
42		Laos	439
43		Guyana	423
44		Guernsey	420
45		Brazil	384
46		Serbia	341
47		Rwanda	334
48		Papua New Guinea	322
49		Barbados	286
50		Bosnia and Herzegovina	249
51		Austria	237
52		Bahamas	225
53		Colombia	191
54		Jersey	183
55		Namibia	181
56		Zambia	175
57		Mayotte	173
58		Croatia	160
59		Saint Vincent & the Grenadines	128
60		Portugal	121
61		Kyrgyzstan	120
62		Burundi	118
63		Venezuela	102
64		Réunion	88
65		Botswana	83
66		Cambodia	83
67		Hungary	78
68		Zimbabwe	55
--		Nomads	3659
--		United Kingdom	1890
--		USA South	853
--		Caribbean Select XV	594
*Change from 18 October 2016

Before early 2016, there was no official World Rugby ranking list for women's rugby. Several unofficial lists have been produced, with the list developed by Serge Piquet in 2009 having widest circulation following its adoption by women's rugby website ScrumQueens.com in 2013.

The system is similar in many ways to that used by WR for its men's rankings, and includes data from every women's international match since 1982.

Match points are awarded to each country as follows:

1. Match level - generally the mean of combined points the two teams before the match, with a minima.

2. The result - 400 points for a win, 200 for a draw, 100 for a defeat or 0 for a forfeit in an official competition.

3. Match venue - 100 points is shared between the two teams. A team playing at home against an opponent from another continent gets 0 point, but 100 is awarded to their opponents. 25 points goes to the home team if the opponent is from the same continent, and 75 for their opponents. 50 goes to each team if they are playing on neutral ground.

4. Number of scored points and the points difference.

5. World Cup - a bonus of 50 points for games in qualifying rounds, 100 in pool phases of the finals, 150 for play offs and 200 for the final.

Matches against A, B, Emerging, Amateur, Junior, Student, Army, Police or Services teams (and provinces/clubs when these games are part of official competitions) are also taken into account.

Nomads, Caribbean Select XV and Great Britain awarded ranking points but not a ranking position.

After each match a team's new ranking points total will be equal to the sum of 10% of their match points, and 90% of the ranking number before the match. This method evens out occasional surprise results and ensures that the ranking rewards consistency of performance.

Finally, in order that current form is given priority over historic performances, points gained from past matches decrease by 2% per year.

Principal differences with the men's and women's World Rugby Rankings

Although the ranking is similar in principle to that produced by WR for men's rugby since 2003 and women's rugby since 2016, there are some differences that take into account differences in women's rugby.

The WR system, for both men and women, does not account for the level of the teams — the winner gains some points, and the loser loses them, regardless of the relative levels of the opponents. This means that a lower-tier team will lose ranking points with a loss to a higher-tier team, even if the result is much closer than expected. Given the sometimes wide variation in strength of teams — even in the same competition — this is too simplistic for women's rugby.

The WR ranking also does not account for matches against "special" teams, especially those that are not WR members — but for many of the smaller women's nations, games against teams such as England "A" are more significant, tougher, and often as good a guide to their strength, if not better, than those against some full-strength test teams. As a result, such games are included in this ranking.

Finally, a new team added to WR's rankings is arbitrarily awarded a fixed number of points (currently 30 in the men's game, and 40 in the women's game). before December 2012, a men's team had to play at least 10 matches to be classified. Given the number of tests women's teams play this would be a significant barrier to inclusion.

An alternative ranking is available at the site 22metri and is based on the WR calculation method applied to the games played from January 2010 with teams assigned an arbitrary starting points of 40, 30 and 20 based on tier.^[6] The ranking is similar to the one from Scrumqueens, as expected.

Sources of women's international results

The above results have been traced mainly via the following listings of national and tournament results - most being national RFUs. Other results have been traced via numerous news reports.

Notes

^ A try was only worth four points in 1982, the five point try not coming in until 1992.
^
Definition of an "international" used in this article. This article, with its accompanying match list and associated data - as well as the statistical summary of each team's relative success - only includes matches that most independent observers appear to treat as "full internationals" (or "test matches"). These may be defined as:
- Tournament games between national representative XVs from tournaments for full international teams;
- "Friendly" fixtures which it appears were generally promoted prior to the game as being between full strength national XVs
- Other fixtures which most independent authorities (as opposed to individual unions) appear to treat as full internationals (such as games involving "World XVs").
As a result the list may conflict with some "official" records published by some national unions who:
- may not include all of these games in their official records (most often because the Union concerned fielded a below strength team in a tournament for full international XVs), or
- my include games which fail to meet the above definitions (most often because they fielded a full strength team in a friendly against an unofficial or "A" team).
^ "Statistics: Scoring & Player Numbers Explanation". Scrum.com. Retrieved 2010-05-17. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
^
Internationals in each calendar year:
- 1982 1
- 1983 1
- 1984 2
- 1985 3
- 1986 5
- 1987 6
- 1988 11
- 1989 5
- 1990 11
- 1991 17 (World Cup year)
- 1992 5
- 1993 12
- 1994 34 (World Cup year)
- 1995 12
- 1996 23
- 1997 32
- 1998 52 (World Cup year)
- 1999 28
- 2000 37
- 2001 46
- 2002 53 (World Cup year)
- 2003 32
- 2004 47
- 2005 44
- 2006 79 (World Cup year)
- 2007 58
- 2008 66
- 2009 54
^ "Official rankings introduced for women's 15s game" (Press release). World Rugby. 1 February 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
^ Women Rugby Ranking - a proposal

External links

Rugbydata now includes all of results above for which a score is known making it the only rugby results website to record women's results on an equal basis to men's. Allows the user to investigate any aspect of any individual team's results.
Entire list of internationals in a Google Documents spreadsheet.
The rise and popularity of women's rugby in Canada, by John A O'Hanley (1998)
Official women's World Rankings

[1] A try was only worth four points in 1982, the five point try not coming in until 1992.

[2] Definition of an "international" used in this article. This article, with its accompanying match list and associated data - as well as the statistical summary of each team's relative success - only includes matches that most independent observers appear to treat as "full internationals" (or "test matches"). These may be defined as:
Tournament games between national representative XVs from tournaments for full international teams;

"Friendly" fixtures which it appears were generally promoted prior to the game as being between full strength national XVs

Other fixtures which most independent authorities (as opposed to individual unions) appear to treat as full internationals (such as games involving "World XVs").
As a result the list may conflict with some "official" records published by some national unions who:
may not include all of these games in their official records (most often because the Union concerned fielded a below strength team in a tournament for full international XVs), or

my include games which fail to meet the above definitions (most often because they fielded a full strength team in a friendly against an unofficial or "A" team).

[3] Tournament games between national representative XVs from tournaments for full international teams;

[4] "Friendly" fixtures which it appears were generally promoted prior to the game as being between full strength national XVs

[5] Other fixtures which most independent authorities (as opposed to individual unions) appear to treat as full internationals (such as games involving "World XVs").

[6] y not include all of these games in their official records (most often because the Union concerned fielded a below strength team in a tournament for full international XVs), or

[7] y include games which fail to meet the above definitions (most often because they fielded a full strength team in a friendly against an unofficial or "A" team).

[3] "Statistics: Scoring & Player Numbers Explanation". Scrum.com. Retrieved 2010-05-17. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)

[4] Internationals in each calendar year:
1982 1

1983 1

1984 2

1985 3

1986 5

1987 6

1988 11

1989 5

1990 11

1991 17 (World Cup year)

1992 5

1993 12

1994 34 (World Cup year)

1995 12

1996 23

1997 32

1998 52 (World Cup year)

1999 28

2000 37

2001 46

2002 53 (World Cup year)

2003 32

2004 47

2005 44

2006 79 (World Cup year)

2007 58

2008 66

2009 54

[10] 1982 1

[11] 1983 1

[12] 1984 2

[13] 1985 3

[14] 1986 5

[15] 1987 6

[16] 1988 11

[17] 1989 5

[18] 1990 11

[19] 1991 17 (World Cup year)

[20] 1992 5

[21] 1993 12

[22] 1994 34 (World Cup year)

[23] 1995 12

[24] 1996 23

[25] 1997 32

[26] 1998 52 (World Cup year)

[27] 1999 28

[28] 2000 37

[29] 2001 46

[30] 2002 53 (World Cup year)

[31] 2003 32

[32] 2004 47

[33] 2005 44

[34] 2006 79 (World Cup year)

[35] 2007 58

[36] 2008 66

[37] 2009 54

[5] "Official rankings introduced for women's 15s game" (Press release). World Rugby. 1 February 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2016.

[6] Women Rugby Ranking - a proposal

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

v t e Women's national rugby union teams
Teams with World Cup appearances	Australia Canada England Fiji France Germany Hong Kong Ireland Italy Japan Kazakhstan Netherlands New Zealand Russia Samoa Scotland South Africa Spain Sweden United States Wales
Teams with no World Cup appearances	Austria Andorra Bahamas Barbados Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Cayman Islands China Colombia Croatia Czech Republic Denmark El Salvador Finland Guatemala Guyana India Ivory Coast Jamaica Kenya Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Luxembourg Madagascar Malaysia Mexico Namibia Norway Papua New Guinea Philippines Portugal Romania Rwanda Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Senegal Serbia Singapore Switzerland Thailand Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Uganda Uzbekistan Zambia Zimbabwe
Ineligible	Basque Country
Defunct	Great Britain Soviet Union