The Red Roses continue upon their goal of retaining their WXV title this weekend, as they enter a second round clash against the Black Ferns of New Zealand. England commenced their campaign with a stunning 40-point win over the United States, with the 12-try thriller ending 61-21 to the good of the Red Roses.
The Black Ferns had quite the contrasting first round, as they were stunned by an underdog Irish victory. New Zealand lost 29-27 to Ireland, who in the space of a year have gone from competing in WXV3 to beating the reigning World Champions. England and New Zealand are now more than familiar with one another, as the two sides battled it out in a WXV warm-up match last month at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium.
England wing Abby Dow spoke to the media after that fixture, and gave an entertaining post match reaction to the 24-12 win. It’s evident the Dow relishes every opportunity to bring the fight to the Black Ferns, and has previously discussed getting a ‘creepy smile’ from Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, when the Black Ferns perform their formidable pre-match Haka. Dow shared how she is always fired up when facing the war dance, and recalled quite the unique story after going eye to eye with Renee Holmes ahead of the recent Allianz clash.
“I think me and Renee Holmes probably gave a bit of a smile to each other, but it was a bit of a rogue story. Post (2022) World Cup at the World Rugby Awards, I was dancing on the floor with her at 3am in the morning, and I was like, ‘this makes a change! Haven’t seen you since then, this is great.’
“So no, I don’t think she was trying to give me the ‘evils’ thing. I was probably trying to give her a wink more like! I think they’re a brilliant set of ladies, all of them, I think even if they do give you that (look) because of the passion they have in their rugby, it’s nothing more than respect. If you’re going to give me the eye, then let’s just go, why not? This is a beautiful game, let’s just smash the s*** out of each other, if I dare say.”
There is no denying the level of respect between the Red Roses and the Black Ferns, with the two sides amongst the roost-rulers of the women’s game since records began. Whilst Dow can admire the technical skill and execution that New Zealand bring to the fold, the wing also enjoys getting the opportunity to ruin the awe-inspiring style of fast flowing attack.
“love it. I love the experience of it. I think they’re (New Zealand) brilliant athletes themselves, and you can always respect how they want to play, in the sense that they absolutely go for it. It’s a beautiful style to watch, but it’s also a beautiful style, if you get your timing right, you can ruin it. I think they do give us that different challenge of how much they want to play, but actually, we can give them a challenge there.”
The most recent battle saw the Black Ferns pressure England for the best part of the first 20 minutes, but failed to register any tries on the board at the Allianz. The Red Roses rallied back mid-way through the first half, with three unanswered first half tries, and a fourth just one minute after half-time. However, England did not end the match as a contest, and head coach John Mitchell was frustrated to see his team ‘take their foot off the throat’, as the Black Ferns scored back-to-back through Katelyn Vaha’akolo.
“I think every team we respect, but also in as nice a way possible, you want to disrespect them, you want to dominate, you want to crush what they’re trying to do.” Dow said in the Allianz Stadium mix zone.
“I think we want to show that to every single team we go up against. I think every game is just as important in that way, because there’s so many ways you can learn. You can learn how to be incredible on top. Learn how to be incredible (when you are) not on top. Like, in that 20 minutes, we nilled them, but we weren’t on top, but we still nilled them.
“I think there’s winnings out of that, but can we crush them earlier? Can we make that five minutes? Can we make that zero minutes, can we from the get go, crush them. I think that’s something that we are growing towards, definitely.”
The meeting between the two Test match titans is set to take centre stage this Sunday (21:00 KO UK time), in the Langley Event Centre, Vancouver, Canada. This neutral venue poses an interesting playing field in all senses of the phrase, as there won’t be an overwhelming majority of England or New Zealand fans in attendance.
The locality of the tournament has made it difficult for fans of the Red Roses and Black Ferns to go out and support their sides, and the opening round of the tournament did not bring in as many spectators then previously hoped for. Dow expressed how the neutral setting does not change the Red Roses tactics, as the England Women are ready to get ‘riled up’ for another big win over the defending World Champions.
“I think it doesn’t matter about the venue. It’s always going to be the Black Ferns in terms of. The thing that I love is when they do that Haka, I absolutely love it, because it’s a cultural challenge. It’s the beauty of what they’re putting out in their culture and how they’re ready to almost fight a war. As much as it riles them, it riles me up as well.
“I get so riled in such a beautiful way, because I see the passion that they have, and I’m like, ‘this is a passionate game. Let’s absolutely go out for it.’ So I don’t think it matters where we are in the world, it’s always going to be an incredible game, and I’m always going to try my absolute 100 percent because they deserve it, as much as we deserve for me to play 100 percent”
This fixture could well be a pre-curser to the upcoming 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup Final, however the Black Ferns will have to re-find their form in time for the competition. New Zealand have gotten the better of England in the past two Women’s Rugby World Cup Finals, as they triumphed on home soil in Auckland’s Eden Park in 2022, and also in Ireland in 2017.
If England achieve back-to-back wins over New Zealand in a matter of weeks, the momentum would be skyrocketing for John Mitchell’s side in time for their own home soil hosted World Cup, that kicks off in Sunderland’s Stadium of Light on August 22nd. Dow admits that there is half an eye on the incoming tournament, and wins over the Black Ferns go a long way in building her team’s confidence ahead of next Summer’s competition.
“Absolutely. It’s so valuable to be like ‘it can be done’. But then you can also look at last World Cup (2022). A year before we played them twice, and we comfortably won, more comfortable than we won today. I think a year can change so much. So yes, we can take it as a positive step forward, but I think there’s so much growth to be done, and we’ve got so much opportunity to grow. I think that is the brilliant part right now.”