New Zealand’s working sport trumped England’s energy to win an exhilarating ultimate of the ladies’s Rugby World Cup 34-31 in Auckland on Saturday and retain their title in entrance of a report 42,579 crowd.
It was a spectacular finish to a match that has damaged information for attendances and got here after England performed three-quarters of the sport with 14 gamers.
Winger Ayesha Leti-I’iga put the Black Ferns forward with their sixth strive they usually held at Eden Park to halt England’s world-record successful streak at 30 matches. It was the hosts’ sixth World Cup title.
England’s winger Lydia Thompson was proven a crimson card for a head-high sort out however they nonetheless almost pulled off victory due to the ferocity of their ahead play.
Four of England’s 5 tries got here from lineout drives, together with a hat-trick to hooker Amy Cokayne, they usually had been handed an opportunity to grab victory within the dying minutes.
However, two lineout drives had been repelled by the house group on their tryline and when England knocked-on, the 40,000 crowd — a report for a girls’s rugby match — erupted in noise.
It accomplished a metamorphosis for New Zealand underneath veteran former All Blacks coach Wayne Smith, who was launched this 12 months after the Black Ferns had been thrashed twice by England a 12 months in the past regardless of being reigning world champions.
Smith had steered the Black Ferns to 11 straight wins however his group had been nonetheless underdogs in opposition to a Red Roses aspect he labelled probably the greatest groups within the historical past of males’s or girls’s rugby.
His group stayed true to the breathless, attacking type that they had used with success all match and it finally triumphed over England’s environment friendly, power-based sport.
New Zealand captain Ruahei Demant mentioned her group’s turnaround in fortunes was one the nation ought to savour.
“It’s been really challenging. Last year we went on a northern tour and we got pumped,” Demant mentioned.
“The way that the players have turned themselves around, there’s a lot that’s unseen. We’ve sacrificed so much to get one chance in a lifetime to win a World Cup at home, and we did it.”
– England lose management –
England took early management via tries to fullback Ellie Kildunne and Cokayne earlier than the sport burst into life when Thompson was despatched off for her Nineteenth-minute sort out on Portia Woodman, which left the star Black Ferns winger unable to proceed.
New Zealand’s instant response was a attempt to hooker Georgia Ponsonby which set off a tit-for-tat scoring sample for the rest of an electrical first half.
Flanker Marlie Packer and Cokayne each scored from English lineout drives whereas New Zealand responded each instances, via Woodman’s substitute, Leti-I’iga and prop Amy Rule.
The hosts hit the entrance via tries quickly after the interval to centre Stacey Fluhler and prop Krystal Murray.
However, momentum swung again to England when Cokayne bagged her third attempt to New Zealand misplaced momentum within the sixty fifth minute when substitute ahead Kennedy Simon was proven a yellow card for a excessive sort out.
Still a participant down, New Zealand rolled the cube by launching an audacious large assault and paid off as Leti-I’iga scored her second strive, through an offload from centre Fluhler.
Earlier, France hammered Canada 36-0 within the playoff for third place. France scored 5 tries in a dominant show to safe the bronze medal for a outstanding seventh time, having by no means certified for the ultimate.