England rugby star Abbie Ward sets her sights on winning the 2025 World Cup on home soil, inspired by the Lionesses' Euro 2022 victory.
Bristol Bears lock Abbie Ward is full of optimism for 2025 and hopes England can create a legacy by winning the World Cup on home soil. Success on the European stage is becoming a common trend, with England winning the last six editions of the Six Nations, however, transferring that onto the world stage has proved difficult. England last lifted the World Cup in 2014 and have fallen agonisingly short at the last two editions - finishing as runner-up.
With the 2025 World Cup set to be hosted in England, the 69-times capped Ward wants to see her team-mates follow in the footsteps of the Lionesses - their footballing counterparts - who won the won Euro 2022 on home soil. 'We want to win a home World Cup - we've said it we're not shying away from that, that is our number one goal,' Ward told BBC Sport.'I think we saw what the Lionesses did in the Euros at home. Like it was phenomenal. Like why can't we have that? Why can't we do that for rugby?'Ward, has played at two Rugby World Cups in 2017 and 2022, and has seen domestic rugby in England go from strength to strength during her time in the sport. When the 31-year-old started out she had to 'pay to play' and buy her own kit, but she has seen the sport take huge strides forward. 'You paid £6 if you started , £4 if you came off the bench, three quid if you're a student, and your £1.50 in the pot for a jacket potato after the game. 'I think that introduction of professional contracts, not just at England, but other nations has really kick-started, I think, a growth of athleticism across the league as well. 'That, in turn, has really boosted the performance and it's enabled players to grow, not just in terms of strength and in the gym and athletically, but strategically, tactically, technically, so that all around the game has just has gone up and up and up. And with that has come sponsors, has come people watching and it being televised. So yeah, night and day differen
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