2006 Women's Rugby World Cup

Qualifiers

Asia

Tickets and sponsorship

Tickets had been available since July 2006 and they could be purchased online at Ticketmaster or by phone. There were individual and student tickets (for each of six match days), tickets for youth teams and clubs, corporate packages and a special "World Cup Pack" of $125 allowing access to all matches including the finals. The partners of this tournament were Toyota "Never Quit" Awards Program, Molson, Tait Radio Communications, Glentel, Budget, University of Alberta, Edmonton Airports and Clubfit. The event was covered by English language network Global TV, daily newspaper Edmonton Journal and radio stations CFRN 1260, CFBR 100.3 and CFMG 104.9. All matches were filmed and for the first time were available via streamed media. The final was also broadcast live on TV in a number of countries, including the United Kingdom, and a one-hour TV highlights programme was produced by IMG for wider distribution, while these recordings are held as part of the IRB's World Cup archive.

Match officials

On 6 July 2006, the IRB Referee Selection Committee announced the appointment of match officials, with twelve women officials selected for the tournament consisting of eight referees and four touch judges. This panel was assisted by experienced international referees George Ayoub, Lyndon Bray, Malcolm Changleng and Simon McDowell, who were appointed in April. Other three touch judges from Canada Rugby Union were included in the final list.

;REFEREES :AUS George Ayoub (Australia) :SAF Jenny Bental (South Africa) :SWI Rachel Boyland (Switzerland) :NZL Lyndon Bray (New Zealand) :SCO Malcolm Changleng (Scotland) :AUS Sarah Corrigan (Australia) :ENG Clare Daniels (England) :FRA Christine Hanizet (France) :CAN Joyce Henry (Canada) :NZL Nicky Inwood (New Zealand) :GER Kerstin Ljungdahl (Germany) :IRE Simon McDowell (Ireland)

;TOUCH JUDGES :ENG Debbie Innes (England) :NZL Kristina Mellor (New Zealand) :CAN Kristi Moorman (Canada) :CAN Sandy Nesbitt (Canada) :SAF Kim Smit (South Africa) :USA Dana Teagarden (United States) :CAN Todd Van Vliet (Canada)

Format

The competition was contested over 18 days between 12 teams, allocated to four pools of three and structured into two parts:

• a pool stage, with 18 matches played from 31 August to 8 September;
• a knockout stage, divided in semifinals and finals, played from 12 to 17 September.

Pool stage

The first three match days saw a cross-pool league system in operation, with Pool A playing Pool D and Pool B playing Pool C, with points going towards one single division table for all four pools. Classification within each pool was based on the following scoring system:

• four points for a win;
• two points for a draw;
• zero points for a loss of 8 points or more. Bonus points were awarded for teams scoring 4 tries or more and losing by 7 points or less. No extra time were played.

Teams were ranked 1–12 on the basis of the most match points. If two teams were equal on match points for any position, then the following criteria would be used in this order until one of the teams could be determined as the higher ranked:

• the winner of the match between the two teams;
• the best differential between points scored for and points scored against;
• the best differential between tries scored for and against;
• the most points scored;
• the most tries scored;
• the toss of a coin.

Knockout stage

After three match days, with each team having played three pool matches, positional semifinals were played with the top four-positioned sides vying to make the Women's Rugby World Cup final and all other sides playing matches in the final two rounds to decide tournament rankings.

If no winner could be determined within the time allowed, two teams should have played an extra time of 10 minutes each way with an interval of 5 and then eventually a kicking competition.

Squads

Main article: 2006 Women's Rugby World Cup squads

Pools

Pool A

Pool B

Pool C

Pool D

Pool matches

Round one

Round two

Round three

Knock-out stages

9th-12th place classification play-offs

|12 September - St. Albert||43||10 |12 September - Edmonton (Ellerslie)||17||12 |16 September - Edmonton (Ellerslie) ||5||10 |16 September - Edmonton (Ellerslie) ||0||36

Semi-finals

11th/12th place play-off

9th/10th place play-off

5th-8th classification play-offs

|12 September - St. Albert||10||11 |12 September - St. Albert||29||12 |16 September - Edmonton (Ellerslie) ||0||24 |16 September - Edmonton (Commonwealth) ||14||18

Semi-finals

7th/8th place play-off

5th/6th place play-off

Finals

|12 September - Edmonton (Ellerslie)||40||10 |12 September - Edmonton (Ellerslie)||20||14 |17 September - Edmonton (Commonwealth)||25||17 |17 September - Edmonton (Commonwealth)||17||8

Semi-finals

3rd/4th place play-off

World Cup Final

Main article: 2006 Women's Rugby World Cup Final

Statistics

Teams

Individual records

Top point scorers

Top try scorers

Sources

• Rugby World Cup Women’s Stats Archive

• Women's Rugby Data

References

References

1. (14 July 2006). "Women's Rugby World Cup tickets".
2. "WRWC FAQs".
3. "WRWC Partners".
4. "IRB Women's Rugby World Cup 2006 on www.247.tv".
5. "The Rugby World Cup Archive".
6. (6 July 2006). "It's a women's game... including the officiating".
7. "2006 Women's RWC match officials".
8. "Rugby World Cup Women's Stats Archive".
9. "Women's Rugby World Cup 2006".