‘Supercharged’:

‘‘We just pitched it that if you played women’s rugby you would want to come to New Zealand.’’ Farah Palmer, NZR board member and former Black Ferns captain

World Rugby has given the five-time world champion Black Ferns a home world cup.

New Zealand will host the 2021 women’s tournament, after a lengthy battle for the rights between the trans-Tasman rivals who had initially sought to host the event jointly.

In the end, a World Rugby council voted 25-17 in favour of New Zealand, whose campaign theme had been to ‘globally supercharge’ the game.

New Zealand Rugby board members Farah Palmer and Mark Robinson had presented a compelling argument as to why New Zealand should stage the event, NZR CEO Steve Tew said.

‘‘Mark and Farah spoke about how to make the women’s game ‘globally supercharged’, which was our theme,’’ Tew said.

‘‘Farah made that point from the time they played at Otago University, when they were literally mocked for playing rugby, to be standing here today as a representative of the NZR board and our country.

‘‘She did that in front of the leaders of the world game; asking to let us polish the crown jewel of the women’s game was a significant advancement.’’

Palmer said she was ‘‘absolutely ecstatic’’ to win the tournament rights for New Zealand. ‘‘This is about the momentum we have got for women’s rugby. With the Black Ferns based in Aotearoa New Zealand, we just pitched it that if you played women’s rugby you would want to come to New Zealand.’’

Palmer, whose husband Wesley Clarke is an assistant with the Black Ferns, said the team, which is in Grenoble preparing to play France this weekend, would be extremely pleased with this outcome.

She was also rapt for those in New Zealand who had worked on the bid.

‘‘I was kind of dreading coming back home and facing all those of people and what they were going to say. This is something we have been wanting for a long time, and the timing is right,’’ Palmer said.

SHAPE OF 2021 WRWC

Twelve teams will play in the tournament, to be staged in Auckland and Northland. It will be the first to feature a