2014 Women's Rugby World Cup

Bidding process

On 27 August 2009 the International Rugby Board (IRB; now known as World Rugby) announced that it was inviting bids to host the 2014 event. Unions had until 30 October 2009 to express an interest with the chosen host being announced on 12 May 2010. The announcement was an important development in the history of women's rugby as the IRB had never previously announced a competition to host a Women's World Cup with such publicity, nor so far ahead of the event. The chosen hosts for 2014 would also have had four years to prepare – twice as long as any previous host. The announcement was also significant because, for the first time, the IRB included the "unofficial" 1991 and 1994 World Cups in their official list of previous tournaments.

On 21 December 2009, the IRB announced the four nations that formally applied to host the 2014 Women's Rugby World Cup:

However, after delaying the announcement until September 2010, the IRB eventually announced that, due to problems with the existing bids, they were reopening applications. Then, on 30 June 2011 the IRB announced that the tournament would be held in France.

Qualifying

France, as the host nation, qualified automatically. The top three teams from the 2010 tournament, New Zealand, England, and Australia, also qualified automatically. Canada and the United States qualified due to there being no interest from other North or South American unions.

Match officials

In April 2014 the IRB announced a panel of 14 match officials for the tournament, including eight referees and six assistant. New Zealand provided two of the referees in the form of Jess Beard and Nicky Inwood, while there will be one each from United States, England, South Africa, Ireland, Australia and Canada. England provided two assistant referees with the others coming from Italy, France, Scotland and Spain. Nicky Inwood, Sherry Trumbull and Clare Daniels were selected for 2010 Women's Rugby World Cup, which took place in England. Indeed, Inwood and Daniels also refereed at the 2006 edition in Canada.

Pool stage

The pool draw took place on 30 October 2013 at Hotel de Ville, Paris. The twelve qualified teams were organised into four bands:

Band 1: New Zealand, England, Australia
Band 2: Canada, USA, France
Band 3: Ireland, Wales, Spain
Band 4: Kazakhstan, Samoa, South Africa

Each pool was a single round-robin of six games, in which each team played one match against each of the other teams in the same pool. Teams were awarded four points for a win, two points for a draw and none for a defeat. A team scoring four or more tries in one match earned a bonus point, as did teams that lost by seven points or fewer.

Knockout Seedings

At the completion of the pool stage, teams were ranked first according to their position within their pool and then by competition points. The top four seeds progressed to the tournament semi-finals, seeds 5–8 progressed to the 5th place play-off semi-finals, and seeds 9–12 progressed to the 9th place play-off semi-finals.

Tie Breakers

Ties on competition points were broken in the following order:
1. Winner of the match between the two teams (does not apply to teams in different pools);
2. Difference between points scored and points conceded;
3. Difference between tries scored and tries conceded;
4. Most points scored;
5. Most tries scored;
6. Coin toss.

9th Place Play-off

Semi-finals

11th Place Playoff

9th Place Playoff

5th Place Playoff

Semi-finals

7th Place Playoff

5th Place Playoff

Semi-Final/Final

Semi-finals

3rd Place Playoff

Final

Discipline

1 Red Card

Suspension Following Citing

2 Yellow Cards

1 Yellow Card