England lay down marker for World Cup with rare away win over Black Ferns
England laid down a marker ahead of their defence of the Women’s Rugby World Cup in August by overcoming New Zealand just before the Lions took on the Maori All Blacks in Rotorua.
It meant England finished the International Women’s Rugby Series with three victories after also beating Australia and Canada. As well as it being their ninth win in a row, it was also the Red Roses’ first away win against the Black Ferns since 2001.
It has been a stunning year so far for England, who won the Six Nations with a grand slam.
The Rugby Football Union’s decision to hand professional contracts to the women’s squad – 16 full-time and 16 covering players, from the Six Nations until the World Cup – has paid handsome dividends.
Outside centre Emily Scarratt, a star of the 2014 World Cup, second row Abbie Scott, wing Lydia Thompson, openside Marlie Packer and replacement hooker Vicky Fleetwood all scored tries against a dogged Black Ferns side, who led 14-7 after 30 minutes.
England kicked off proceedings with an early break from Thompson. She passed out to Scarratt to put England ahead in the third minute.
However, the Black Ferns made the most of their opportunities, coming back to score two tries with scrum-half Kendra Cocksedge and wing Portia Woodman touching down.
England, however, applied pressure and a yellow card for New Zealand captain and hooker Fiao’o Fa’amausili in the 35th minute allowed Scott to score from a rolling maul. That made it 14 -14 at half-time.
In the second half England made the most of their numerical advantage with Thompson overcoming Woodman to break free into the corner. It was her 27th career try and third of the series.
England kept the momentum to score a second driving-maul try from a line-out when Packer pushed over after 55 minutes.
The maul continued to prove effecPlayer tive for England, who were in control throughout the second half, with Fleetwood scoring their fifth try.
New Zealand replacement Victoria Subritzky-Nafatali scored a try with two minutes left.
Simon Middleton, the Red Roses’ head coach, said: “We’ve got a clear way in which we want to play and we’ve invested a lot of time in being able to control field position as well as being able to control possession. With the weather as it was tonight, we knew what we needed to put in place.
“We’ve got some great kickers of the ball and a lot of energy on the field and that came good for us tonight.
“We needed to give everything against the best side in the world and we’ve done that and so are rightfully very happy and very proud.”
Captain and No8 Sarah Hunter was pleased with her side’s progress. She said: “We have built through the series and to come out and put in a performance like that against New Zealand is something we’re very pleased about.”
The 2016 World Rugby Women’s of the Year pointed out the challenges of playing southern hemisphere and North American opposition compared with Six Nations opponents.
“The teams we have played over the last couple of weeks are very different to the European sides we played in the Six Nations and so it took a little while to find our feet against Australia. We were then disappointed with the way we played against Canada in attack.”
The 93-cap veteran concluded: “We’ve worked really hard over the last few days on the short turnaround and analysed our performance and we certainly put that into practice tonight. ”
England kick off their World Cup campaign in Dublin on Aug 9. They are drawn in Pool B alongside Spain, Italy and the United States.