Black Ferns v South Africa: New Zealand shake off South Africa to reach Rugby World Cup semifinals

The Black Ferns survived a first-half scare before blitzing South Africa 47-17 to advance to the Rugby World Cup semifinals.

It was the reverse of the game of two halves seen in Wellington when the male counterparts clashed on Saturday, as this time it was New Zealand who dominated the second half with six tries after it was locked up 10-10 at the break.

The Black Ferns will face Canada in next Saturday’s semifinal after the world No 2 side cruised to a 46-5 win over Australia.

South Africa brilliantly starved the defending champions of the ball in the opening half as they kept it in the forwards and down in New Zealand’s end of the field.

South Africa had 81% of possession in the first half with New Zealand making 143 tackles to just the Springboks women’s 16. It still took them 20 minutes to turn that possession into points before Babalwa Latsha scored from close to the line.

Black Ferns prop Veisinia Mahutariki-Fakalelu was amazing in defense, with 21 tackles in the opening 29 minutes.

New Zealand had few chances in the opening half but they made the most of the ones they got. Liana Mikaele-Tu’u went close to scoring their first try, knocking on just short of the line in the 24th minute after New Zealand pounced on a lineout mistake inside South Africa’s 22m.

Moments later, a Maia Joseph charge down saw the ball fly straight into the hands of Theresa Setefano who beat two tackles from five metres out to score and make it 5-5.

Mahutariki-Fakalelu continued a great half earning a key turnover that eventually led to their second try. With a five metre scrum, the ball was sent out wide right and World Cup star Braxton Sorensen-McGee ran in for her seventh of the tournament and a 10-5 lead.

But when it seemed New Zealand would take control of the quarter-final, South Africa hit back scoring just before the break. Once again, they kept the ball with the forwards and their pack rolled 30 metres and eventually Aphiwe Ngwevu dived over to make it 10-10 at the break.

It was a totally different game in the second half. Renee Holmes scored just 37 seconds after the break which was followed by tries to Sorensen-McGee and Kaipo Olsen-Baker and just six minutes after halftime New Zealand were out to a 25-10 lead.

Olsen-Baker, returning from what was feared to be a broken ankle in the opening match, added her second in the 53rd minute in a player of the match performance where she starred on both ends of the field. Stacey Waaka was another stand out in her 30th test.

South Africa did eventually cross again with four minutes to play, again off a pick-and-go with Lerato Makua scoring.

But substitute Katelyn Vahaakolo had the last say, scoring New Zealand’s eighth of the day right on fulltime.

“We got a bit of a rark up in the sheds especially us backs, our accuracy wasn’t good enough and it wasn’t the standards that this jersey demands,” Black Ferns No 10 Ruahei Demant said after the win.

“We knew that we were going into the wind and the opportunity to play a high possession game which a lot of us love was the message given to us from our coaches and I’m really proud of the way we took that message and enforced it in that second 40.”

The Black Ferns will be left with a few concerns beside the poor start to the quarter-final. Holmes missed the first five conversions while Setefano failed an HIA which could rule her out of the semifinal.

Black Ferns 46 (Theresa Setefano, Braxton Sorensen-McGee 2, Renee Holmes 2, Kaipo Olsen-Baker 2, Katelyn Vahaakolo tries; Sorensen-McGee 2 cons, Holmes con.)

South Africa 17 (Babalwa Latsha, Aphiwe Ngwevu tries.)