The 2010 Women’s Rugby World Cup gets underway today in England, with 12 teams competing for the coveted title.

Format
There are three pools of four teams as below, with each team playing three pool matches in the usual round robin format.

At the end of the pool stages, the three pool winners and the best runner-up will go through to the semi-finals to be played at the Stoop. The other two runners-up and the best two 3rd place finishers will go into a sort of ‘Plate’ competition for 5th place, whilst the bottom three teams will go into a ‘Bowl’ competition for 9th place.

Venue

There are three pools of four teams, with all the pool stage matches taking place at Surrey Sports Park in Guildford. The main competition semi finals will then take place at the Stoop in Twickenham on 1st September. The final is Sunday 5th September, also at The Stoop.

Fixtures

There are no fewer than 6 fixtures on day 1, with Canada v Scotland getting things underway at 12pm. Other highlights today are defending champions New Zealand v South Africa at 4.15pm, and hosts England v Ireland at 6.30pm.

The full fixture list can be found here.

Media

- Sky Sports are covering most of the key matches live
- The Official Site has lots of up to date articles and information – http://www.rwcwomens.com
- ScrumQueens is the best Women’s Rugby site and will be following the action closely
- The Official Twitterings are at http://twitter.com/rwcwomens if that’s your thing
- There is also a Facebook page here – http://www.facebook.com/WomensRWC

There are lots of ways to keep up with the event, and make sure you get down to Guildford or The Stoop to see some of the games if you can.