The Red Roses laid down a real statement of intent last Saturday, as they recorded a 24-12 win against the Black Ferns at the Allianz Stadium. Whilst this match did not carry the stakes of when the sides met previously in the Women’s Rugby World Cup Final, this exhibition Test match can go a long way in deciding the favourites heading into next year’s World Cup on English soil.
England have no gone back-to-back with wins against the Black Ferns, following upon their victory in the inaugural WXV tournament back in New Zealand last December. The Red Roses now have the opportunity for an unprecedented trio of successive Test match triumphs against the reigning world champions, with the two sides set to meet in less than three weeks time in Canada for 2024 WXV.
Having sustained an initial 20-minute onslaught of non-scoring Kiwi attack, England steamrolled their way over the Black Ferns for three unanswered first half tries. Red Rose scrum half Natasha Hunt re-ignited the scoring a minute into the second half, for England’s fourth in a row. The Black Ferns rallied back with two tries of their own, as the late brace from wing Katelyn Vahaakolo saw out the match.
Whilst England head coach John Mitchell was pleased with the victory, the New Zealander simplified the game plan for the next meeting in British Colombia. Mitchell wants his England team to become ruthless in their victories, and not give their opposition the chance to wage a comeback late in the game. “When you’ve got the foot on the throat, finish it.” Mitchell told the media in the post-match press conference.
“Our discipline in the last 20 metres of the field let them off the hook. We had them exactly where we wanted them. We didn’t get momentum like we normally do. New Zealand did a good job there. For us there’s some key learning in how we get momentum against New Zealand.”
With less than a year to got before the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup kicks off, England will take such key learnings from this battle with the Black Ferns. The mission objective is clear for every member of the Red Roses squad, in how they have their sights set on winning next year’s home-hosted tournament. Commencing on August 22nd at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light, the countdown is on for England to add a ruthless element to their victories in time for the tournament.
“New Zealand will continue to play the way they do, it’s just in their DNA.” Mitchell added. “We knew that was going to come. We handed them some possession and some soft tries. All of our own doing, which was good because the last World Cup we didn’t get these kinds of lessons at this time of year. It’s really good for you.”
“It was a satisfying performance. We went through a patchy start and then built some really good pressure and unstructured play. We then had an opportunity to finish them, but we didn’t finish them through letting them off with penalties.”
“It’s good and exactly what we wanted – to get lessons at this time of year. We’ve completed a series of two tough Test matches and some of the girls were playing for the first time in 10 weeks. There was always going to be a bit of rust, so you can’t be too hard on the girls. But the girls are hard markers and so they’ll want to get better.”
As Mitchell alluded to, the win against New Zealand was the second of two Test matches to kick-start the 2024/25 season for the Red Roses. After a lengthy preseason camp that stretched throughout the best part of the Summer, England racked up a victory over France in Gloucester to commence their campaign. The Red Roses will soon be jetting out to Canada for WXV, with Mitchell set to name his selected squad this Thursday, and explain all of his choices in a press conference at the Allianz.