England v New Zealand: RFU in talks over standalone women's game at Twickenham
- Published
England beat France in the first standalone women's game at Twickenham in front of a record 58,498 fans earlier this year
The Rugby Football Union (RFU) has held discussions with the New Zealand Rugby Union about England facing the Black Ferns at Twickenham next year.
The fixture would be a repeat of the most recent World Cup final in Auckland last November, which the hosts won.
England are set to play Ireland at Twickenham in the 2024 Six Nations.
"Clearly there is a bit of rivalry there between the Black Ferns and the Red Roses," RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney told 91热爆 Sport.
"We've had conversations around if we can bring them over to Twickenham next year."
The first time England played a standalone women's Test fixture at Twickenham was in April, when a world record crowd of 58,498 watched them beat France to win the Six Nations Grand Slam.
England captain Marlie Packer says the Red Roses want to continue setting new benchmarks.
"We are a squad that wants to keep breaking world records," Packer told 91热爆 Sport.
"What better place to do it than at Twickenham in a standalone game with New Zealand? It's a game we all want to be involved in."
England interim head coach Louis Deacon added: "I think it's fantastic. The opportunity to play the best in the world at home and build on the France game last year will be an outstanding occasion."
Women's British and Irish Lions a possibility
Sweeney has also confirmed that England Rugby supports the concept of a women's British and Irish Lions tour in the future.
Without giving away when a tour could happen, he said the women's global calendar would accommodate its inclusion.
"It's supported around certain key criteria in terms of being able to deliver some of the key objectives we have for women's matches." added Sweeney.
"So the window that's been agreed for the Women's Lions tour to go ahead enables us to keep that separation between other competitions and other matches, so we're quite comfortable with that."
Women's global calendar 'challenge'
As World Rugby unveiled details about the structures in place for an improved men's global calendar, chief executive Alan Gilpin conceded there were issues about the women's calendar going forward.
The inaugural WXV tournament is under way, but is struggling for prominence as it clashes with the men's Rugby World Cup.
Gilpin said giving the women's competitions "clear air" was on the agenda.
He added: "We've got a challenge with WXV and the global release window in the future for the women's global calendar being in the same window effectively as the men's Rugby World Cup, so we're facing into the same problem as we look at 2027.
"There's work to be done on that and the format of WXV, and how that can be optimised.
"[There's] more work to do and certainly a desire to give as much clear air to the women's global competitions as we can, but the reality is that we face that calendar challenge."