The best sports stories are never really about the scoreline. They are about who we are, who we want to be, and what becomes possible when belief is matched by opportunity. They reveal something deeper about society and about life, and when they are powerful enough, they inspire and unite us in ways politicians could only dream of. In 2025, no sporting story in England captured that spirit more fully than the dominance of the Red Roses.
When England lifted the Rugby World Cup trophy on 27 September, it was a symbol of persistence and of a hard-fought campaign for change across women’s sport.
The Red Roses were the first women’s rugby team to go full-time professional, in January 2019. That decision gave the women the chance to train and recover as elite athletes, and the ability to give up their full-time jobs, but it also changed everything about the sport. England led by example, and many other nations followed suit by offering their women professional contracts. In short, this is a team who have campaigned for better conditions and pay for themselves and their competitors, and they deserve great credit for the rise of women’s rugby around the world.
That winning moment this autumn belonged not only to the team on the podium, but to every woman who played for the Red Roses before, who campaigned for better conditions, fairer treatment and greater investment in the women’s game. The trophy belongs as much to captain Zoe Aldcroft as it does to the 231 women who played for England unpaid and without proper facilities.
But, if awards are only about achievement within a calendar year, then England’s women could not have done more. They won every game this year. They added another Six Nations Grand Slam to an already overflowing honours list and followed it up with the ultimate prize, a World Cup trophy.
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Critics may point to the lack of competitiveness in the World Cup, but England should not be penalised for being excellent when their dominance was built through years of sacrifice and resilience. This is a squad that includes two mothers, a serving member of the RAF, and players who for much of their careers balanced full-time jobs alongside international rugby. Their competition has never only been on the pitch, but in the constant pursuit of breaking glass ceilings.
England’s maternity policy, for example, was campaigned for by members of this squad and has become the world-leading example of parental policy for sports governing bodies around the world.
The World Cup itself may not have delivered the nail-biting drama that neutrals hoped for, but England never played within themselves. Their route to the final was smooth, yet they refused to coast. They played with ambition, stretched defences, and captivated audiences who may never have watched women’s rugby before.
That is why the Red Roses deserve to be the Team of the Year. They have elevated an entire sport. They showed us what happens when excellence is nurtured rather than ignored. Their success tells a wider story about equality. They won everything they could and did it in style. But above all, they deserve it because once they soared to the top, they lowered the ladder to help women from other nations rise too. That’s when a team’s achievement goes beyond sport.
Read next: Jessy Parker Humphreys's article on why the Lionesses are their pick for Team of the Year
Photograph by Mike Egerton/PA Wire