Sports Journalism student Alfie Bugg was lucky enough to see England win the Women’s Rugby World Cup Final at the weekend as part of a work placement. Here he blogs about the experience he gained while working at the event.
I got the opportunity to be an intern for the Rugby News Service at the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup after finding the opportunity circulated on our course Canvas site. I worked on the tournament for three weeks in York during the pool stages and then was selected to work the final week of the event in Twickenham.
My role mainly consisted of interviewing teams at media days, team announcements, eve-of-game briefings and on matchdays. My quotes would then be transcribed and uploaded directly to the Rugby News Service website. In my time in York I spoke the then current World Champions New Zealand as well as a host of other countries including Canada, Australia, Japan and the USA.
Across the three weeks I developed my interviewing and critical thinking skills, using my judgement to decide what to ask teams and when to ask them certain questions.
In the final week of the tournament at Twickenham, I performed the same tasks as in York, but this was at the bronze medal match and the World Cup Final, when hosts England won by beating Canada 33-13.
A lot of national journalists turned out in London, and I learned a lot from their expertise and found it really interesting to see how they operate in a professional environment.
I was part of the record-breaking 82,000 crowd inside the stadium that witnessed England lift the World Cup and was one of the first people to speak to the players after the match to get their instant reaction.
I’ve come away from the tournament with new connections and the experience of working on a World Cup Final, which will look really good on my CV.