If New Zealand and England are again to be on a Women’s World Cup final collision course then this festival weekend of rugby in Brighton would have gone a long way towards illustrating why. The 60,000 or so who packed out the Amex Stadium across two days where the sun shined on women’s rugby would not have witnessed either the defending champions or the tournament favourites at anywhere near their brilliant best – but just as the Red Roses had done against Australia a day prior, New Zealand’s Black Ferns showed the defensive strength and sparkling individual touches of a champion side.
Last September, Ireland had shocked the rugby world with a remarkable upset of the world champions in Vancouver, a 29-27 WXV1 win that had threatened to shift the axis of power. But with the stakes raised by a World Cup stage, the Black Ferns lifted their game, turning away the incessant Irish bashing on their door to keep their most recent conquerors pointless entirely. There is a reason that the women in black have won six of the nine tournaments to date – come the bright lights of the big dance, they tend to get it right, with new stars like hat-trick scorer Braxton Sorensen-McGee seemingly always ready on the talent conveyor belt.
Come the close, there seemed to be Irish bodies strewn down to the seafront, the impacts of a brutal 80 minutes clear. For a squad already shorn of several top performers due to injury, this was another difficult day, full-back Stacey Flood lost to an ankle injury and openside flanker Edel McMahon off in severe discomfort too. Those left standing carried the battle scars of a day that had began with hopes of an Irish upset but ended with Scott Bemand’s side bound for a tough quarter-final meeting with France.
It is South Africa, meanwhile, who are likely to take on New Zealand in Exeter next Saturday; a defining rivalry in the men’s World Cup unlikely to be so strongly contested here, even if the Women’s Springboks’ emergence has been a delightful subplot of this tournament.
Even before the action had properly begun came a crescendo of sorts. A typically passionately-delivered Haka by the Black Ferns was met by faces of stone by an Irish unit locked together 20 metres away, both sides locked firmly in formation even as the pre-match music played. A great roar that reverberated along South Downs soon drowned out the DJ, the might wall of noise setting the backdrop for that which was to follow.
Ireland are something of the Black Ferns’ bogey side, winners of two of their previous three meetings to boast the distinction of having been the only side with a winning record against women’s rugby’s perennial power. If the first of those wins had been the more damaging, a pool-stage success derailing New Zealand’s 2014 World Cup bid, the victory in Vancouver last year gave Scott Bemand’s side real hope that they could again challenge the reigning world champions.
There were, of course, plenty of key differences from then to now – not least in terms of personnel. The outstanding Aoife Wafer had been immense 12 months ago, two tries underscoring a superlative display, but the back five of the Irish pack contained Dorothy Wall, too, with Erin King excellent off the bench. To have all three absent through injury – though Wafer should be back for next week’s quarter-final – felt a blow that Ireland would struggle to overcome.
New Zealnd were a little slow to get going here, surviving a spell of early pressure as imprecise handling first at the lineout and then in phase play cost Ireland points. But after 12 minutes on the defensive, New Zealand got going, threatening with virtually their first possession. Their assault was halted by a knock-on and subsequent pause for the testing of a government emergency alert system – and the alarm bells were soon ringing properly for Ireland as Stacey Waaka ran in a gorgeous score created from near halfway. Thundering loosehead Chryss Viliko bashed over for a second five minutes later.
The loss of full-back Flood to what looked a tournament-ending ankle injury in an innocuous incident at the back of a ruck was another significant loss to Ireland. Soon enough, teenage talent Sorensen-McGee’s mamba-like weave proved deadly.
The individual talent across this New Zealand side really is quite something. The Black Ferns lack the cohesion, organisation and tactical variety of the Red Roses at their best but in terms of dynamic game-breaking threat, they are at least their equal and probably more. The emergence of figures including Sorensen-McGee – a will o’ the wisp in space – and Jorja Miller, who combines outrageous athleticism with being a proper openside pest, may have to lift them in this campaign if the attack doesn’t quite click.
Yet perhaps it shows their imperfections that they could not really take advantage of an ailing Ireland until after the hour-mark here. Those three first half-scores were not added to in a first 15 minutes after the interval disrupted by injury to Irish openside McMahon, and Amee-Leigh Costigan would have got Ireland on the board if not for a cruel bounce after Dannah O’Brien had hacked into space left vacant in the Black Ferns’ backfield.
Sorensen-McGee helped herself to another try on the end of a neat rightward passing move, while New Zealand’s defence remained strong too, co-captain Kennedy Tukuafu snaring a crucial turnover off the bench to illustrate their depth. After spending the best part of 15 minutes camped on their own line, the Black Ferns finished with two tries in 90 seconds as Sorensen-McGee grabbed a hat-trick and Maia Joseph finished off a length-of-the-field romp with the final play – that is what champion sides do.
