Naomi Mallam
Women’s sport has exploded in recent months thanks to the success of England’s Lionesses, but how has this impacted the success of this year’s delayed Rugby World Cup and what actually happened there?
This year’s belated Rugby World Cup has seen major global success thanks to better TV coverage and the growth of women’s sport as a whole thanks in large part to the 2022 Euros. England especially saw promotional success as their win streak continued from their 25 straight wins prior to the World Cup. We saw eventual winners New Zealand come away with the ninth edition of the tournament for their 6th title, with England and France taking home silver and bronze respectively.
The first week of the tournament saw a number of records broken, with a sold out Eden Park and a record smashing result put up by England’s Red Roses in just the second match. However, the first match was a high quality win for France’s women who doomed South Africa with a dominant second half performance leading to a 40-5 victory for Les Bleus. As mentioned before, England’s Red Roses broke a number of records in their first match of the World Cup against Fiji, continuing their record for “the most consecutive test match wins by a rugby union team” and more. The final game of the opening day was a far more interesting affair as the Wallaroos laid down the challenge to the Black Ferns and pushed them early and hard - taking a 17-12 lead at half time but being denied the chance to put any more points on the board as the Black Ferns stormed away to win 41-17.
The second day had two extremely tight affairs between similarly powerful teams in relation to the women’s game. The day opened, however, with a blowout win for the Canadians as they sent Japan back to the locker room with a 41-5 victory. It was the games that followed that would be the showpieces of the day. The final game of the opening week was Scotland taking on Wales and aiming to get revenge for their 24-19 defeat earlier in the year. The game seemed to be in the hands of the Welsh going into the second half with a 15-5 lead, though the Scots weren’t finished as they equalised with mere seconds left. However, the dream comeback was not to be as a final play penalty kick was secured and scored by Wales to narrowly edge out a game they seemed to have been winning.
The second week of the tournament was no slouch either, with Scotland and the Wallaroos opening in what ended with a 14-12 win for the Australians, with only a missed conversion by the Scots being the difference between the two. After that, USA’s Eagles took on Japan’s Cherry Blossoms in what was yet another entertaining affair as the two teams both looked to play fast rugby. The game ended in the Eagle’s favour winning 30-17. To end the third match day, France put the challenge forward to the Red Roses in what many pundits and fans were expecting to be the grand final of the RWC. However, France took early knocks losing key players, mainly Sansus, meaning England could edge them out in a 13-7 win with Scarratt scoring an ace for the English. The second day was no less entertaining, though the games were far less close, as the Black Ferns slaughtered the Welsh in a 56-12 blowout with 12 tries across the two teams. The day continued with a tighter match between Italy and Canada as a win for either would secure them into the knockout rounds. The Maple Leafs led 12-5 at the half before and managed to slightly expand that lead to 22-12 in order to finish the game in Canada’s favour. The week ended with a thriller of a game between Fiji and South Africa, with Fiji stealing the game in the last minute with a try from Naisewa before Cavuru slotted the conversion home leading to a 21-17 scoreline.
The final week of the pool stage left much in the air but it was all quickly silenced as France annihilated Fiji 44-0, in what would only end up as the third largest scoreline of the week, to secure their place. Immediately following this was yet another blowout win as the Black Ferns handed Scotland a 57-0 loss - officially knocking them out of the World Cup. Luckily for the fans, the final game would decide the second seed of the group as the Wallaroos took on Wales. The game ended 13-7 as the Wallaroos denied Wales the chance to sneak a win or a draw with a 78th minute penalty. The final day of pool stage games began with the third blowout win and the largest scoreline of the weekend as England obliterated South Africa 75-0 with 13 tries but only 5 conversions. This allowed an extra potential 16 points vanish as the Red Roses re-established their dominance over the women’s game. Luckily for spectators however, the later 2 games would be far closer and far more entertaining affairs as Canada defeated the USA 29-14, with the Canadians scoring 5 tries to the USA’s 2. The final pool stage game of the tournament was between Japan and Italy. With a low scoring first half, Italy would dominate the second half by putting an additional 13 points on the board and finishing the match with a 21-8 victory.
The quarter finals were decided by a seeding system (meaning that 2 pool stage rematches would occur as the Black Ferns re-matched Wales and Canada battled the USA). The Black Ferns beat Wales 55-3, France beat Italy 39-3, Canada beat the USA 32-11 and England defeated Australia 41-5. This led to a set of semi finals that every fan was bound to love. The first semi-final was between England and Canada; the game finished 26-19 though not without difficulty for the English. A tight first half would see a narrow lead into halftime before a wonder try from Abbie Dow (this won the Women’s Try of the Year Award). A responding try from Canada’s Beukeboom narrowed the gap to 4 before England star Emily Scarratt sealed the game with a penalty in the 71st minute. The other semi-final was between New Zealand and France with France pipped as narrow favourites. In a game that many consider to have been the best in the World Cup, France took a 7 point lead going into the half before tries from Tui and Fitzpatrick and a conversion and penalty kick from Demant took the Kiwi’s into the lead. The path to the final would require some luck as a penalty conceded in the final play would give the French a chance to steal the game. However, French kicker Caroline Drouin would send it slightly wide, ending the game 25-24 for the Black Ferns.
The final weekend of the tournament opened with the third place playoff between France and Canada which would sadly end up in a landslide victory for the French who won 36-0. Thankfully, for fans and pundits everywhere, the Red Roses Vs the Black Ferns was shaping up to be the rugby final we deserved; however, England shot out of the blocks to a 14-0 lead before winger Lydia Thompson was dismissed for dangerous play. Despite this, England maintained their lead, responding with 2 tries from Cockayne (giving her a hat trick with her earlier try) and 1 from Packer. Unfortunately, Thompson’s red card opened a gaping hole in the English defence with which the Black Ferns scored 6 tries and 2 conversions with the last and most important one being in the 71st minute. This gave the Black Ferns the lead despite a sin-binning for reserve flanker Kennedy Simon. Sadly, the game would end in controversy as England went to the corner with their penalty in the final play and despite bringing the ball down cleanly, illegal collapsing of the ensuing maul from the Black Ferns would prevent the try being scored. The decision not to give a penalty try here caused some controversy as England were effectively on the try-line and the illegal collapse prevented it. Due to this, England would get another penalty and once again they sent it to the corner. However, this time, the Black Ferns would steal the ball and win the World Cup. Once again, the decision not to award a penalty raised the eyebrows of some pundits and fans as they viewed the Black Ferns jumper to have jumped across, which would be another penalty infringement. The decision was not reviewed by the TMO, causing the Black Ferns to win the World Cup and the Red Roses’ 30 game win streak to come to an end. Despite this controversy at the end of the match, the back and forth arm wrestle between the two giants of women’s rugby proved to be a huge advert for the sport globally.
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