Woodman shy of try-scoring record

Eight-try star wing Portia Woodman says she just got ‘‘the glory’’ for her inside backs’ hard work after the Black Ferns blitzed Hong Kong 121-0 at the women’s Rugby World Cup in Dublin, Ireland.

Woodman was just two tries short of equalling the world record for the highest number of tries scored by an individual in an international rugby match - currently held by Hong Kong player Ashley Billington with 10 tries against Singapore in 1994.

After finishing her professional netball career, Woodman has been on the rugby scene for four years, but this was the 26-year-old’s biggest test try haul.

But, Woodman who admitted to being ‘‘a little bit knackered’’ after the Ferns’ 19-try romp yesterday, was never going to take the full credit for her part.

‘‘I think we were doing a bit of a conditioning session there after a while, but it’s all down to the girls on the inside with the ball - they were working in the middle and I just get the glory in the end to finish it off.’’

She said the World Cup debutantes did roll over as the score would suggest.

‘‘It doesn’t quite reflect it for Hong Kong, they were putting in some massive tackles, their D [defence] and their attack was really good too.

‘‘Unfortunately it doesn’t show how hard they were working.’’

Woodman comes from impressive rugby stock - both her father and uncle were All Blacks in the 1980s - and she also played for the Mystics netball team before calling it quits to play sevens.

She rejoined the Black Ferns’ squad after winning a sevens silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

While it would be easy to get carried away over what is likely to be a record try tally for an individual at a women’s rugby World Cup, the Aucklander is keeping her feet firmly on the ground and remains wary of their next opponents, the Canadians.

‘‘It’s going to be a physical game, we played them in June.

‘‘We know how tough and physical they are, but I think if we stick to our game plan and stick to our strengths which is our forwards hitting it up along with our X-factor backline, we’ll be good.’’

Black Ferns coach Glenn Moore said after the match that Woodman was a workhorse and showed up with the ball when her opposition didn’t expect her.

‘‘Yeah, she’s class. She’s class when she goes looking for work, she pops up in places. She’s got class about her. She’s got class when it comes down to finishing, but I am sure she will also recognise it takes a lot of work to get her the spaces on the edge and I thought the rest of the team did really well today creating some of those spaces.’’

Moore was happy to see his side rack up the tries and was positive the Black Ferns had more to come.

‘‘We are pretty pleased, we knew we had to get a good win under our belt and we knew we had to accumulate some points today.

‘‘It’s not so much about records we had some things that we wanted to do here today and we managed to do them, which is pleasing and I think if you can score 19 tries in any fixture I think you’re going to be happy with that. We know that coming up against Canada next will be a different proposition.’’

The 19 tries from their Black Ferns was not enough to beat their record 134-6 scoreline against Germany at the 1998 Rugby World Cup.