Canada will host a mouth-watering week of test rugby this summer when four of the top six teams from the 2014 World Cup come together in what looks like being the most competitive and exciting summer series for over a decade.

England and Canada - meeting again in July

Canada have been hosting summer women’s test tournaments for over 20 years, but not since 2004 have they brought together such a star-studded cast as that which will gather in Alberta at the end of June. As well as world cup runners-up Canada and sixth-placed neighbours the United States, the tournament will also include current world champions England and their predecessors New Zealand.

The first round of the “Women’s Rugby Super Series” will take place in Calgary at the Calgary Rugby Park on June 27th, where the 2004 “Canada Cup” also opened. Back in 2004 the tournament was a straight knock-out with Canada going down 35-11 to England after New Zealand had beaten the United States 35-0.

This time the tournament will be a round-robin with England opening up against the United States followed by Canada against New Zealand. Five days later on July 1st the next stage will take place in Red Deer at the Red Deer Rugby Park, where Canada will battle the USA on Canada Day while New Zealand will take on England.

Then four days after that, on July 5th, the final round will take place at Ellerslie Rugby Park in Edmonton, which was also used for the final in 2004 when New Zealand beat England 38-0. There will be no “winner takes all” final this time and instead in the final round of pool games New Zealand will meet the United States before Canada play England in a rematch of the 2014 WRWC Final.

However, while New Zealand, Canada and the United States will be able to select their strongest line-up as their sevens teams will almost certainly have already have qualified for Rio, the same may not be the case for England. If they cannot finish in the top four of the World Series (where they are currently sixth), England’s sevens squad will be involved in a desperate struggle for the European Sevens Championship which ends only six days before this tournament starts. And if they fail to win that, they will be preparing for the last-chance saloon that will be the European Olympic Qualifier, to be held in Portugal two weeks after this tournament ends. With many of their leading players still likely to be absent, after their fourth place in the Six Nations, England could well find this tournament a huge challenge albeit great experience for their newer faces.

The series will almost certainly be streamed live – as have all previous international series in Canada since at least 2009.