The Black Ferns defeated Spain, with Portia Woodman-Wickliffe among the try-scorers, but faced challenges with injuries to key players. Photo / Getty Images
The Black Ferns defeated Spain, with Portia Woodman-Wickliffe among the try-scorers, but faced challenges with injuries to key players. Photo / Getty Images
The Black Ferns defeated Spain, but faced challenges with cohesion and injuries to key players.
Kaipo Olsen-Baker was stretchered off but later cleared of a broken ankle.
Cheryl Waaka, former Black Fern, was recently diagnosed with Stage 4 bowel cancer, prompting team support.
The first 10 minutes of the Black Ferns’ opener against Spain were shocking, with Jorja Miller and Renee Holmes misfiring passes into touch and Vici-Rose Green squirting a forward pass when space beckoned for a colleague. Combinations were never going to be seamless from the outset, and Milleratoned promptly for her rare blemish with two tries roaming on each wing. When Liana Mikaele-Tu’u barged over in the 24th minute, it was suddenly 21-0. But then cohesion vanished for the remainder of the first half.
The bench was emptied at the interval, and there was a notably more direct approach by the Black Ferns that yielded immediate profit. A four-try bonus point was banked, and the job was done; though England, by way of comparison, demolished Spain 97-7 on August 2.
The sight of Kaipo Olsen-Baker being stretchered off in agony in the 53rd minute was devastating. (Early on Tuesday she was cleared of a broken ankle). The 2024 Black Ferns Player of the Year would have been a certain pick for the 2022 Rugby World Cup had she not been injured. That setback and the later departure of Ayesha Leti-I’iga, who scored two tries, meant a 17-minute workout with 13 players. While it was gusty and character-building, the Black Ferns leave York with more questions than answers, notably regarding the welfare of two key players.
Did Renee Holmes’ seven successes from eight attempts do enough to ease the Black Ferns’ pre-tournament goal-kicking anxiety? Will co-captain Kennedy Tukuafu struggle to start in a loose forward trio with a wealth of options? Miller is a gun, but how dynamic was Layla Sae, 145m and five line breaks from 18 carries? Liana Mikaele-Tu’u, with a try, six offloads, six tackles and 76m gained from 19 carries, was player of the match.
Spirited Spain ...
“Las Leonas, “Las Leonas,” (which translates to Lionesses), Spanish supporters howled with evangelical zeal for 80 minutes. For what Spain lacked in skill, they more than made up for with sheer passion. Their mauling had the Black Ferns back-pedalling several times, and their tackling was determined. Alba Capell (27) and Monica Castelo (21) led the individual tackle counts, with 14 players making 10 or more tackles.
When replacement prop Ines Antolinez Fernandez managed to wriggle over for an 80th-minute try in her 23rd test, it triggered joyous celebration – with even cordial New Zealand spectators joining in with the leaping, shrieking Spaniards. How delightful.
Jorja Miller opened the scoring for the Black Ferns against Spain. Photo / AFP
One for Cheryl
Black Ferns, past and present, have been rocked by the recent Stage 4 bowel cancer diagnosis of Cheryl Waaka, Black Fern No 80. The 55-year-old mother of two from Northland was an uncompromising loose forward, winning 19 of her 20 test matches, including World Cup finals in 1998 and 2002. She scored a try in the 19-9 Rugby World Cup final win against England in 2002.
Four years earlier, the Black Ferns won a World Cup quarter-final against Spain 46-3 in Amsterdam. Waaka scored two tries. As a coach, Waaka has mentored both senior men and women, including Black Ferns Krystal Murray and Portia Woodman-Wickliffe.
“We talk about legacy a lot in this team, and if it weren’t for women like Cheryl, we wouldn’t be here today,” Liana Mikaele-Tu’u said.
“She was ripping it before I was even born. We have donated some jerseys to help fundraise for her treatment. As a group, we were eager to show our love for Cheryl and this jersey with a strong start against Spain.”
The Black Ferns beat Spain 54-8 in York. Photo / AFP
England start stronger
In front of 42,723 spectators at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland, the largest-ever crowd at a Women’s Rugby World Cup match, England crushed the USA 69-7 to accomplish their 28th consecutive win.
The USA were genuinely dogged in the opening half an hour and even scored a cracking try to lock Erica Jarrell-Searcy, whose Go Gadget arm fends and loping stride took her 30m.
But when talismanic second five-eighths Alev Kelter, a three-time sevens Olympian who ranked inside the RugbyPass list of Top 50 Players in the world, unlike headline magnet Ilona Maher, was yellow-carded, things unravelled quickly for the Eagles. Two quick tries propelled England to a 28-7 lead at halftime, and it was a procession in the second half.
The Red Roses mangled the American scrum, earning the majority of their dozen penalties from that source. World Rugby Player of the Year Ellie Kildunne was rampant for the Red Roses, scoring two tries and charging for a whopping 153m from 18 carries.
Interestingly, Jarrell-Searcy would be one of the brightest players at the World Cup. The Sale Sharks product studied molecular and cellular biology at Harvard while also competing in basketball, cross country and equestrian, winning a gold medal in eventing during the Junior Olympics in 2016. Jarrell-Searcy and the Eagles will have to show all their brains and brawn to topple Australia in their next pool game. The Wallaroos walloped Samoa 73-0 in an encouraging start to their campaign, and a win against the USA would confirm a quarter-final spot.
Compelling Canada
While most of York was overdressed, underdressed, overwhelmed or underwhelmed at the riotous Ebor Handicap, a horse race that predates the Melbourne Cup and even included the presence of Queen Camilla, Canada took care of business against Fiji in a far more dignified environment.
Despite Fiji’s Kolora Lomani scoring a try that will surely end up ranking as a contender for the best of the tournament, balanced, confident, clinical Canada had far too much ammunition, and are now unbeaten in their past eight internationals.
Remarkably, fullback Julia Schell scored six tries in a 22-minute span of the second half. She completed her first hat-trick in under five minutes. She had scored just three tries in her previous 26 internationals.
“At halftime, Kevin [Rouet, the Canada coach] challenged us to win our one-on-ones. I just wanted to get out there and do that – for myself and for the team,” Schell reflected. “I know if I’m in the right place at the right time, the tries will come, but our focus was always on the team’s performance.
“Fiji is so fast and physical, and they love to play an offload game and play on the edge. We never wanted to rule them out because we knew that at any moment they could come out flying, which they did right after halftime. That was our mindset going along – just keep pushing, keep pushing, keep pushing – because we knew they were going to do the same.”
The previous record for most tries by a Canadian in a Rugby World Cup match was shared by Maria Gallo and Magali Harvey, who scored five each against Spain in 2006 and Hong Kong in 2017, respectively. Unsurprisingly, the record for most tries in a Rugby World Cup match is held by Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, who bagged eight against Hong Kong in 2017.
Show some respect
Any hint of anything triggers videographers, influencers and the impressionable quicker-on-the-draw than cowboys from old Westerns scrambling for their devices to click, capture and upload.
This Energy Never Stops, as the tournament mantra goes.
To be seen is to be heard, cool even, and that’s fine, but only in the right areas. In the media turbine, your humble correspondent was joined by inaugural Rugby World Cup winner Tara Flanagan, a 1991 USA lock. A Judge of the Superior Court of the State of California in the County of Alameda, and a freelancer, she was delightful company even after copping a bollocking from an officious World Rugby foreman for the heinous crime of filming briefly on her phone.
There would be nothing to film if it weren’t for pioneers like Flanagan. Maybe that official should check her facts next time.
Adam Julian with former USA rugby player Tara Flanagan. Photo / Supplied
This story was originally published at Newsroom.co.nz and is republished with permission.
