With the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 in full swing, the RFU’s Head of Consumer Engagement, Sally Sheppard, joined our Her Business of Sport podcast to assess the success of the tournament so far and to reveal an insight into England Rugby’s plans to harness new supporters in the future.
Sally on Impact 25
“We are determined that this legacy will last well beyond the tournament. We have had close to £14m from the Government with a project called Impact 25 and we are now 3 years into the four year programme.
The focus of it has all been on improving the infrastructure, facilities, coaching and match officials and improving access for young girls. Many rugby clubs were designed by men, for men and so we’ve made a really concerted effort to make sure that we have women and girl friendly spaces in rugby clubs and we have already given 145 grants to clubs to improve their facilities.”
Sally on competing for fans:
“We do have some very loyal supporters who keep coming back to Rugby time and time again. But keeping that audience and keeping that relationship going can be challenging when there is more to compete with.
I think what is really interesting in Women’s Sport and different to the Men’s game, is how supportive we all are of each other. There’s been a lot of activity around women supporting women this Summer and actually, what we have been able to do is take that interest in the Lionesses in the Euro’s and the Hundred in cricket and bring that into the Women’s Rugby World Cup.”
Sally on connecting with young fans:
“Of course the team want to win the World Cup but before the tournament started, they came up with a slogan of “For the Girls”..that’s the girls in the past who worked hard to develop the game, the girls playing now and the girls of the future. So, it has been so nice to see banners at games sharing that idea of For the Girls and seeing that they are there for the future.
We have also had a big Yarn Art campaign because part of our team are really passionate about crochet and they actually have Crochet Club in camp. It has been lovely to see on Social Media and at the Fanzones just how women and girls of all ages have got behind this with bunting and Red Roses to show their engagement with the team.”