After all these years of asking for more, it’s churlish to complain when the Women’s Rugby World Cup delivered so much in one weekend. England’s victory pulled in two-and-half million prime time viewers on the BBC, 85,000 fans turned out across the four grounds, including a record-breaking 42,000 crowd in Sunderland, five hat-tricks, four packed fan zones, free concerts, and all those fireworks. It had almost everything anyone could have wanted. Almost. The one thing missing was a tight finish. The closest of the eight games was settled by three tries and change.
The success of the World Cup isn’t just going to be measured by what happens on the weekends, but in the days in between them. World Rugby wants people to be talking about this tournament when they go into work on Monday morning. And for that to happen it needs some jeopardy.
