New Zealand’s Black Ferns beat England’s Red Roses in Women’s World Cup Rugby Finals
What an ending. What a match. New Zealand celebrates wildly, England in floods of tears. With thousands of poi in the air and a mass of bodies on the ground, the Black Ferns earned their sixth and greatest World Cup title tonight. But only just.
New Zealand somehow survived the deadly English maul to topple a team hailed by coach Wayne Smith as the best of all time, thrilling a record-breaking Eden Park crowd and completing their incredible resurgence.
A year after twice being thumped by England – part of the Red Roses’ 30-match winning run – the Black Ferns made it back to the top of the world with the type of rugby that has become their hallmark.
They were electric in attacking from all parts of the field, taking risks in possession and taking their chances when it mattered.
They even withstood the early loss of Portia Woodman, forced from the field after copping a high shot from Lydia Thompson that left England to battle for more than an hour with 14 players.
It was a battle the Red Roses almost won. With the hooter having sounded and with England camped in the corner looking for their fifth maul try, Joanah Ngan-Woo came up with a decisive lineout steal, and the Black Ferns emerged triumphant.
It would have surprised few that the maul played such a significant part in proceedings – it was a well-known weapon for England and became even more influential once they had lost their right wing.
It wasn’t that the favourites were incapable of shifting the ball through their hands. They had done so with aplomb earlier in the tournament and opened the scoring tonight in the third minute through a slick exchange of hands that saw Ellie Kildunne cross in the corner.
But once Thompson had seen red, they had little reason to stray from the tactic. Not when the Black Ferns could not stop New Zealand-born hooker Amy Cokayne from crossing for a first-half double, and not when Marlie Packer could finish off another that rolled all of 20 metres.
One of the rare occasions England did attempt to spread the ball almost led to disaster, with Renee Holmes superbly picking off a loose pass before racing 70m to the line. But that was nullified by referee Hollie Davidson playing a lengthy advantage and, in a significant swing, England used the penalty to score their fourth try.