WXV Global Series will be like ‘mini-World Cup’Image source, BBC Sport NIImage caption, Cantwell joined the IRFU in 2025 after a successful playing careerByJana McCabeBBC Sport NI journalistPublished40 minutes agoThe Irish Rugby Football Union’s head of women’s strategy Lynne Cantwell says the upcoming WXV Global Series is like having “a mini-World Cup every year, but on home soil”. The WXV Global Series has replaced the WXV competition and will feature the top 12 teams in the world.
England, Scotland and Wales will join Ireland as well as France, Italy, Japan, South Africa and the United States in the series with the matches to be played during the autumn break.
The tournament will help prepare the sides for the 2029 World Cup in Australia with teams playing between nine to 16 Tests in the WXV Global Series every year.
“Ireland play USA and Japan and the actual locations are nearly ready to be published and they will be published before the end of the Six Nations,” Cantwell told the Ireland Rugby Social.
“That will be brilliant and I think this is going to be a really exciting competition as you are going to have USA coming, Australia the following year, New Zealand and Canada.
“You are going to have a mini-World Cup every year but this will be on home soil. From an Irish rugby point of view, we will have five or six international home games every year which has never happened before. That is really massive.”
