The Breakdown | How the smaller ball trial in WXV has brought ‘mixed bag of emotions’

The trial has caused heated debate in women’s rugby, with England’s Zoe Harrison calling it the ‘worst decision ever’, but others more open to it “We won a World Cup with a size five so it can’t have been that bad,” the England full-back Ellie Kildunne says of World Rugby’s trial with smaller balls in the upcoming WXV Global Series.

The top 12 nations in the world rankings will be playing home and away matches from Saturday with the WXV competition revamped from the one contested over the past few years.

There will be no trophy at the end of it and the ball trial that has produced no little debate is in place.

Players will compete with a size 4.5 ball instead ofthe aforementioned size five, which is used across rugby union; the new ball weighs the same but is 3% smaller.

The reasoning is to see if a smaller ball will improve skillsets because of women’s physiology, despite statistics such as a 87.8% lineout success rate at the 2025 Women’s Six Nations and kicking success at goal reaching 61% at the World Cup last year with the old ball.

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  The Breakdown | How the smaller ball trial in WXV has brought ‘mixed bag of emotions’