England won their second straight match over the Black Ferns. Photo / Getty Images
The Black Ferns are staring down the barrel of a three-test whitewash against England after losing the second match of the series to the hosts 21-7 this morning.
The defeat follows the 10-0 shut-out at the hands of the English at Twickenham in the weekend and their prospects are not
good leading into the final match at Esher Rugby Club in Surrey on Sunday morning (NZ time).
Matching the English was always going to be tough given their lack of matches this year. England had played nine tests to the Kiwis' nil heading into the series, but regardless the world champion Black Ferns will be disappointed given they have never before lost consecutive matches to the English and lost only three matches in 21 years before the tour.
The twin blows of a lack of a decent test schedule and the canning of the NPC by the New Zealand Rugby Union last year have bitten hard.
The New Zealanders were missing veteran hooker Fiao'o Fa'amausili, who suffered a tour-ending knee injury at Twickenham, and captain and fullback Victoria Grant who injured an ankle in the same match.
"We missed Victoria's vision and experience from the back, but are hopeful she'll recover from her ankle injury and be fit to lead the final test on Saturday. We also felt the loss of Fiao'o and her strength around the ruck," coach Grant Hansen said.
The English outscored the New Zealanders three tries to one, openside flanker Justine Lavea dotting down for the Black Ferns after the home side had gone out to an 8-0 lead after only 12 minutes.
New Zealand went to the break 11-7 down and a further blow came after halftime when lock Vita Robinson was sinbinned for repeated infringements.
First-five Katy McLean and hooker Victoria Fleetwood scored two unanswered tries for England to make the game safe.
Hansen added: "The team played well in patches but it was pretty frustrating spending so much time on defence which was physically and mentally sapping against an organised England side."
England 21 (Georgina Roberts, Katy McLean, Victoria Fleetwood, tries; McLean 2 pens).
New Zealand 7 (Justine Lavea try; Kelly Brazier con).
HT: 11-7
