England and Canada meet on Saturday in the World Cup final as the two highest-ranked teams chase the biggest prize in women’s rugby at a sold-out Twickenham.

World number one England are bidding to win for a third time following success in 1994 and 2014 – when they beat Canada in the showpiece.

The Red Roses, who have been fully professional since 2019, have won a world record 32 successive Test matches and favourites to make it 33.

They are also seeking to make up for the heartbreak of the 2022 final when they lost 34-31 to New Zealand after having winger Lydia Thompson sent off early in the first half.

Canada outclassed defending champions New Zealand to reach their second final and arguably have been playing better rugby than England.

They are not fully professional and set up a £530,000 (C$1m) fundraising drive – entitled Mission: Win Rugby World Cup – to help boost their chances.

The final, which kicks off at 16:00 BST, will be shown live on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app.

Head coach John Mitchell believes his England side are ready to thrive in front of a record crowd of 82,500 for women’s rugby.

“I don’t think you’ve ever seen the best of England. There’s definitely more in this team – we always ask more of ourselves,” he said.

“We probably don’t even know what that ceiling is – it’s probably wrong of us to set a limit. These girls are driven, they want to get better.

“This tournament throws curve balls and you have to deal with a lot of adversity to get to this point and Saturday will be no different.

“You’ve got one and two in the world in the final, which is so good for the game. It will require an 80-minute performance, which we will have to earn.

“We’re never going to be perfect, but to win this tournament, you don’t have to be perfect.

“There’s so much talent, ultimately it would be nice for this team to be able to fulfil their potential and be rewarded for that.”

Captain Zoe Aldcroft added: “We are so excited to get out there. We have been working on this for three years and it is our time now, we really feel that.

“We’re so excited to experience it. It’s something we’ve never experienced but wanted for so long.

“The momentum and the impact that we have had on fans throughout the tournament, it’s going to be so exciting to see where we have pushed women’s rugby to and exciting for this new era of women’s rugby on Saturday.

“Honestly, it gives you goosebumps. It’s like the 16th person on the pitch and it really pulls you forward.”

England centre Meg Jones, who has been nominated for World Rugby women’s 15s player of the year, said the team were driven to become part of rugby history.

“We’ve had to fight for every second of game time in this tournament. We’ve earned the right to be here,” she added.

“To run out at Allianz Stadium, knowing the stories we all carry, the communities we represent, and the history we’re creating – that’s massive. That’s what makes this week so powerful.”

Canada head coach Kevin Rouet, though, said his team have improved since their narrow 26-19 defeat by England in the World Cup semi-finals three years ago.

“I think we were very close in the last World Cup,” added the Frenchman.

“We lost in the semi-finals and I would say all of the metrics were in our favour but not the score, so it’s kind of hard sometimes.

“But we were not ready in those high-pressure games to deliver and I think that’s a big difference.

“We changed the way we play, for sure, and I think I saw a year and a half ago that we were going in the right direction and we do a lot of good stuff.

“We had a good game against England in Canada (a 21-12 loss in 2024) but we didn’t deliver on details.

“Why I believe this team is different is we have had more time together. Last time we played them, it was a short preparation. That’s the key of success for us, just more time together.”

Flanker Aldcroft captains an unchanged England side featuring two survivors from the victorious 2014 team in scrum-half Natasha Hunt and number eight Alex Matthews.

Star full-back Ellie Kildunne, Abby Dow, Zoe Harrison, Amy Cokayne, Abbie Ward, Aldcroft and Matthews remain from the starting XV defeated by the Black Ferns in the final three years ago.

Centre Jones and wing Jess Breach, who has scored six tries in the World Cup, are the only England players to have started all six games in the 2025 tournament.

Canada are also unchanged. Eight of their starting XV play for English sides in the Premiership Women’s Rugby league including Exeter Chiefs centre Alex Tessier, who captains the side.

Canada’s team contains three survivors from the 2014 World Cup final defeat – 38-year-old flanker Karen Paquin starts, while fellow forwards Olivia DeMerchant and Tyson Beukeboom are named on the bench.

England: Kildunne; Dow, Jones, Heard, Breach; Harrison, Hunt; Botterman, Cokayne, Muir, Talling, Ward, Aldcroft (capt), Kabeya, Matthews.

Replacements: Atkin-Davies, Clifford, Bern, Galligan, Feaunati, L Packer, Aitchison, Rowland.

Canada: Schell; Corrigan, Symonds, Tessier (capt), Hogan-Rochester; Perry, Pelletier; Hunt, Tuttosi, Menin, De Goede, O’Donnell, Crossley, Paquin, Forteza.

Replacements: Boag, Kassil, Demerchant, Beukeboom, Royer, Senft, Apps, Seumenutafa.

The final will take place at Twickenham in front of what will be a record crowd for a one-off women’s rugby match.

Tickets for the 82,000-capacity Allianz Stadium sold out a month ago, with the attendance therefore set to beat the record of 58,498 set when England played France in the 2023 Six Nations.

The third-place play-off between losing semi-finalists New Zealand and France takes places before the final.

England’s Ellie Kildunne is the face of the tournament, and she bounced back from missing the quarter-final win over Scotland after a concussion injury by delivering in fine style against France.

The full-back hit her stride with two superb tries at Ashton Gate, having only flickered briefly in her two previous outings at this World Cup.

She was also sporting eye-catching cheetah-print footwear from her boot sponsor for the first time, and has been prominent in much of the advertising for the tournament.

Canada standout Sophie de Goede is a rugby rarity as a goal-kicking lock forward, and with 58 points is the second-highest scorer in the World Cup so far.

The final offers her a chance to go past New Zealand’s Braxton Sorensen-McGee, who has 59 points prior to the third-placed play-off against France that takes place before the final itself.

De Goede’s 20 conversions are the most in the tournament, and the 26-year-old has also kicked one penalty and crossed for three tries.

England are coached by former All Blacks head coach John Mitchell. The 61-year-old New Zealander worked with the England men’s team’s forwards from 1997 to 2000, and was their defence coach from 2018 to 2021.

He succeeded Simon Middleton as head coach of the women’s team in 2023 and has won every game since taking over.

Canada’s head coach is 38-year-old Frenchman Kevin Rouet. He joined the Canada women’s set-up in 2019 as assistant coach and stepped up to succeed Sandro Fiorino in 2022.

England have scored 43 tries in the tournament, while Canada have managed 35.

Full-back Julia Schell has scored six tries for Canada, all in an extraordinary 23-minute spell in her side’s opening pool match against Fiji.

Wing Jess Breach has crossed the whitewash six times for England, including a hat-trick in the thumping victory over Samoa. Prop forward Kelsey Clifford has scored five and Kildunne four.

New Zealand’s 18-year-old full-back Braxton Sorensen-McGee is the tournament’s top scorer with nine so far, and could add to her total in the third-place play-off match against France.

The aim of the game is very simple: score more points than the other team over 80 minutes of play (two halves of 40 minutes).

You do this by scoring tries, conversions, drop-goals and penalties.

A try – for touching the ball to the ground in your opponent’s in-goal area – is worth five points

A conversion – a kick after a try – is worth two points

A penalty kick – awarded for foul play – is worth three points

A drop-goal – a kick in open-play – is also worth three points

Find out more on the game’s terminology and playing positions in our guides below.

England reached the final with a 35-17 win over France at Ashton Gate, extending their world record winning run to 32 matches.

They had powered past Scotland 40-8 in the quarter-finals, having beaten the United States, Samoa and Australia to win Pool A.

The Red Roses have scored 283 points across their five games and conceded just 42.

Canada reached Twickenham thanks to an enthralling 34-19 win over defending world champions New Zealand in their semi-final.

Prior to this, they won Group B through wins over Fiji, Wales and Scotland before seeing off Australia 46-5 at the quarter-final stage.

Scotland’s Hollie Davidson will take charge of a World Cup final for a second time having refereed the 2022 match between New Zealand and England.

Aimee Barrett-Theron (South Africa) and Clara Munarini (Italy) will be the assistant referees with Leo Colgan (Ireland) the television match official (TMO) and Matteo Liperini (Italy) the foul play review officer (FPRO).

Australia’s Ella Goldsmith will referee the bronze final, supported by Kat Roche (USA) and Sara Cox (England) as assistant referees, Quinton Immelman (South Africa) as TMO and Ian Tempest (England) as FPRO.

There have been nine previous Women’s World Cups but only three nations have lifted the trophy – New Zealand (six times), England (twice) and the United States (once).

England have played in eight finals but only won two of them, in 1994 and 2014.

Canada lost on their only previous appearance in a final, falling to England in 2014.

The United States won the inaugural tournament in Cardiff.

2021: New Zealand 34-31 England – Eden Park, Auckland*

*competition was postponed to 2022 because of Covid pandemic

2017: New Zealand 41-32 England – Ravenhill, Belfast

2014: England 21-9 Canada – Stade Jean-Bouin, Paris

2010: New Zealand 13-10 England – Twickenham Stoop, London

2006: New Zealand 25-17 England – Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton

2002: New Zealand 19-9 England – Olympic Stadium, Barcelona

1998: New Zealand 44-12 USA – National Rugby Centre Stadium, Amsterdam

1994: England 38-23 USA – Raeburn Place, Edinburgh

1991: USA 19-6 England – Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff

If the teams are tied at full-time the match will go into sudden-death extra time.

There are two halves of 10 minutes allocated and the first team to score any points will win the match.

If there is still no winner after the sudden-death period, a kicking competition involving five players from each side will take place.

The match kicks off at 16:00 BST and will be shown live on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app.

BBC One & iPlayer will be live from 15:00 until 18:35, with radio commentary of the whole match on Sports Extra from 15:45 and on 5 Live from 17:00.

There will be live text and video highlights on the BBC Sport website from 15:00.

Losing semi-finalists New Zealand and France face each other in the Rugby World Cup third-place play-off.

The match takes place before the final at Twickenham on Saturday, 27 September at 12:30 BST.