Women’s Energia AIL Competition Season Plan Confirmed for 2025/26

24th June 2025 By The Editor

©INPHO

The 2025/26 season structure for the Women’s Energia All-Ireland League has been confirmed.

The IRFU are pleased to announce the Women’s Energia All-Ireland League (WAIL) competition season plan, after ongoing consultation with the WAIL clubs and provincial representatives. Many factors have been taken into consideration, including the overall women’s season calendar which includes the Women’s Rugby World Cup, the Celtic Challenge and Six Nations clashes and stadia availability all had to be taken into account when finalising the competitions dates for the season.

Consultation on the overall strategy plan for the Women’s Game in Ireland is ongoing, in line with the work being carried out and led by Lynne Cantwell.

The Men’s Divisions of Energia AIL calendar was released recently, and can be found here.

The women’s AIL will feature two ‘No Rugby Weekends’. These weekends are separate to the six reserve weekends in the calendar to allow players, coaches and volunteers to manage their time away from rugby.

The Energia All-Ireland League Women’s Division will kick off on the weekend of 27, September, with 18 rounds of the competition ahead of the semi-final and conference semi-final rounds on the weekend of 11, April. The conference final will be played the weekend, 18, April and the Energia AIL Final is set for the following weekend on the weekend of 25, April, in Aviva Stadium, as a double header final with the Men’s Division 1A.

All will be to play for at the end of the season, with the Conference semi-final and final rounds, which will give the teams finishing in 5th– 8th place, competitive games right through to round 18 of the Energia WAIL.

IRFU Competitions Manager Kevin Beggs said:

“It is fantastic to now have both our men’s and women’s 2025/26 Energia AIL season plan confirmed, with the fixtures currently being worked on and will be finalised and issued to clubs in the coming weeks, and I again want to thank our WAIL clubs for their ongoing consultation on the season plan. I would like to extend a warm welcome to Ennis RFC who will be joining our All-Ireland League competition this season, which now sees 10 teams compete in this seasons Women’s Energia AIL.”

IRFU Head of Women’s Strategy Lynne Cantwell added:

“I want to extend my thanks to all our WAIL clubs for their valuable input into the season plan. It is essential for clubs to be able to plan their season ahead early as there is a considerable amount of work that goes into it by clubs, coaches, players and volunteers .As we work to finalise the overall IRFU Women’s Strategy, the voice of the clubs is of utmost importance.The game is growing at an unprecedented pace globally and in Ireland.We are at a pivotal point in decision making across all levels of the women’s game and we hope the new women’s rugby strategy will enable us to work collectively to build a robust and sustainable future for women and girls who want to play rugby in Ireland. Our community game is a top priority in that build and we will shortly engage the women’s domestic game community as part of the longer term planning process. In the short term, I am looking forward to support clubs, teams and players in the WAIL season ‘25/26 ahead.”

2025/26 Women’s Energia AIL Competition Fixtures

Energia All-Ireland Women’s Junior Cup
Quarter-Finals: Sunday October 12, 2025
Semi-Finals: Sunday November 30, 2025
Final: Sunday January 18, 2026

Women’s All-Ireland Conference Semi-Final & Final
Women’s Conference Semi-Finals: Saturday April 11, 2026
Women’s Conference Final: Saturday April 18, 2026

Energia All-Ireland League Women’s Division
Round 1: Weekend of Saturday September 27, 2025
Round 2: Weekend of Saturday October 4, 2025
Round 3: Weekend of Saturday October 18, 2025
Round 4: Weekend of Saturday October 25, 2025
Round 5: Weekend of Saturday November 8, 2025
Round 6: Weekend of Saturday November 15, 2025
NO RUGBY WEEKEND – Weekend of November 22, 2025
Round 7: Weekend of Saturday November 29, 2025
Round 8: Weekend of Saturday December 6, 2025
Round 9: Weekend of Saturday December 13, 2025
Round 10: Weekend of Saturday January 10, 2026
Round 11: Weekend of Saturday January 17, 2026
Round 12: Weekend of Saturday January 24, 2026
Round 13: Weekend of Saturday February 7, 2026
Round 14: Weekend of Saturday February 14, 2026
Round 15: Weekend of Saturday February 28, 2026
Round 16: Weekend of Saturday March 7, 2026
NO RUGBY WEEKEND – Weekend of March 14, 2026
Round 17: Weekend of Saturday March 21, 2026
Round 18: Weekend of Saturday March 28, 2026