Toulouse (AFP)

A new annual world women's competition, dubbed WXV, will see the light of day in 2023 as part of a harmonized international calendar, World Rugby announced on Tuesday.

The governing body of world rugby thus hopes "to accelerate the development of women's rugby", declared in a statement its president, Bill Beaumont, evoking "an important moment for rugby".

The new competition, organized from September to October each year outside the World Cup, will involve a total of 16 teams, spread over three levels.

The first, WXV 1, will bring together the top three European teams from the Six Nations Women's Tournament and the top three teams from a new inter-regional tournament between the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

Initially, none of them will be relegated at the end of the competition, which will be played in a single place and according to a system of two pools.

On the same principle, the WXV 2 will bring together two European teams at the start, the fourth team of the tournament between the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, plus a team from Asia, one from Africa and one from America. from South.

The last one will be relegated at the end of each season to the third echelon, the WXV 3, which will have only four teams: two from Europe, one from Asia and one from Africa or South America depending on the winner. 'a blocade.

This new international calendar will offer "a more coherent competition course over the long term," commented World Rugby vice-president and president of the French Rugby Federation, Bernard Laporte.

"For the first time, women's programs can be planned with certainty between two World Cups, thanks to a harmonized schedule," he added.

World Rugby also wishes through the WXV (for Women XV) to generate new "economic benefits" and "to support the enlargement" to 16 teams of the Women's World Cup from 2025.

The 2021 edition of the Women's World Cup, which was originally scheduled to take place in New Zealand this fall, has been postponed to 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

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