England prop Sarah Bern put in a customary performance upon her return to the Red Roses starting XV, as the line-breaking prop lit up the Allianz Stadium in the win against the Black Ferns last Saturday.
After the match, Bern spoke with the media about quite a personable element, as her nephew Finlay was able to enjoy all the action of the Red Roses win, from the Allianz’ new sensory room. The Bristol prop’s nephew has additional sensory needs and can struggle to enjoy the match day environment in amongst the loud atmosphere of the crowd.
Bern was delighted to know how her sister’s family could watch on, in a relaxed environment made possible by the stadium’s new facilities.
“Well, I’ll try and say it without getting upset, because I haven’t been able to speak to a journalist yet without crying! It was pretty special to be there singing the anthem, and I literally knew where they were. I looked up and I could see his little head and his flag, and afterwards, walking around, they were all there shouting and screaming, waving their flag. So it was amazing for them.
“It’s not so much a pressure of release on me, but it’s lovely and endearing to see that my family are there and they’re all happy. Finlay’s happy, and my sister’s happy, and there’s no extra added pressure on them, they can just really enjoy the game, and there’s a safe space for Finlay to just be himself, and hopefully he’ll feel like there’s a space in the world for him, and we can generate more spaces like that for people.
“I think is massively important, not just for me, because he’s my nephew, but for everyone who has sensory need. We create spaces for so many different types of disability, I don’t think people who have sensory needs should be left behind, or anyone who needs to access a sensory room, I think it’s important we keep pushing for those spaces.
“We’ve got one room here, but hopefully we can get another few rooms, so we can have more families here at Allianz. I would love there to be more all over the country, especially in particularly in rugby. Definitely Ashton Gate is my next target, so hopefully they’ll be listening.”
Bern has recently battled back from a meniscus knee injury, which wrote her out of England’s 2024 Women’s Six Nations Grand Slam triumph. The Bristol forward sustained the injury in the PWR back in January, when the Bears overpowered Leicester Tigers for a 50-12 win. After a gruelling road back from recovery, Bern joined up with the Red Roses preseason Summer training camp, before making her return to the pitch for the Red Roses’ season opening win against France a fortnight ago.
Whilst Bern relished the opportunity to explode off the bench at the home of Gloucester, the prop was delighted to get the nod to start in Saturday’s win over New Zealand in Twickenham.
Bern addressed how her comeback has gone throughout the past two weeks, in the post match mix zone at the Allianz Stadium. Still buzzing with excitement after the Red Roses racked up a 24-12 win over the Black Ferns, Bern discussed the whirlwind couple of weeks that has capped off months of hardworking injury rehab.
“I think last week was good. Blew a few of the cobwebs away, dealt with some of the pressure. Just remembering that, when I come back from injury, not to put too much pressure on myself, to do something crazy, just to do my job well.
“But this week that’s gone out, that’s out the window, I’m back in the squad now, and I’m actually just really enjoying it and just loving the experience. The atmosphere is great, it’s crazy. Playing the Black Ferns is amazing, I was just just smiling and enjoying every bit of it.”
Whilst this win did not carry the heavy stakes of previous Red Roses matches against the Black Ferns, the victory certainly awards England the bragging rights heading into WXV. England have now beaten New Zealand in back to back Test matches (first was 2023 WXV), with the chance for a hat-trick on the cards when the two sides meet in Canada for WXV1.
However, New Zealand have made a habit of beating the Red Roses when the stakes are at their highest, as the past two Women’s Rugby World Cup Finals have gone the way of a Black Ferns win over a devastated England side. With the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup Final set to be hosted at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium, Bern backs her side to take home the spoils when it matters most, should England find themselves facing off against the Haka in 12 months time.
“We knew that was coming. We knew how the black fans like to play. They’ve got some amazing players all over the field, but particularly on the edge. Their edge players are pretty amazing. So we knew that was coming and I think our back three handled it really well.
“There were some amazing chase back tackles and then just getting back on side and getting off the line, trying to get that ball back. So we’ve been working on that this week. I think we’ll probably want to brush up on making sure that people don’t get those breaks away. But I think all the girls did really well, a good defensive job.”
With 11 months to go before the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup kicks off, Bern still sees plenty of room for growth for the Red Roses squad. There was plenty of discussion after the win against New Zealand from the England players and coaches, about how the side is still yet to hit their peak, with the errors identified in the win set to be ironed out in time for their home soil hosted World Cup campaign.
“I wouldn’t say disappointed. The Black Ferns are an incredibly tough game, but we knew this was not going to be a 60-0 game. It’s just not going to happen. I think we kept our frustrations low, that was key. We just kept chipping away, chipping away, getting down the pitch.
“There’d definitely be some fix ups. Like you say, it’s the second game of the season, which is Craziest thing, playing the Black Ferns on the second game of the season. But we’ve improved massively from last week, and I think that’s what the next step is. When you see us in WXV, we’ll definitely would have improved again.”
Bern echoed the thoughts of her head coach John Mitchell, in how England need to up their ruthlessness when seeing out a match for the win. After going four tries up against the Black Ferns, the Red Roses took their foot off the gas, with New Zealand wing Katelyn Vaha’akolo cruising in for the fixtures last two scores. Bern expressed how England are out to improve, in the aim of hitting their Everest peak in time for next August.
“I think you can feel it. You know, when you’re on your line like ‘this one matters.’ They (New Zealand) definitely will feel that as well. So I think the more you play, the more you get the feel of these big moments that actually swing the game quite a lot. I think England came on top of those big pressure moments today, and hopefully that’s something we continue to build on and continue to push into next year too.”
“Every team now will have the World Cup in the back of their head and will have the thought process that, that’s something they want to aspire to be peaking for. For us, it’s there, but each step, we want to get better, and it’s not changed. The same message since the last World Cup, every game is as important, and every game is a game to get better at something.
“So although we might have picked up on our handling errors from last week, there’s now new things that we need to work on for this week, and we’re leading into WXV. It’s definitely a big focus now on USA, Canada and New Zealand again, looking into WXV. That’s the main focus.”