As French first five-eighth Caroline Drouin lined up a last-minute penalty that would likely send her side to the World Cup final, the Black Ferns could only watch and hope.
After a bruising encounter, the New Zealand side had clung on to a one-point lead as the clock wound down.But a dangerous tackle and a yellow card to reserve Black Ferns prop Santo Taumata in the final minute of regulation time gave France a golden opportunity. Drouin, one of the game’s best kickers, stepped up to the mark about 35m out, and just to the right of the posts.
Before the kick, the Black Ferns had addressed all the possible situations of the moments that would follow; how would they get the ball back if the kick split the uprights? How would they go about winding the clock down if Drouin missed?
As they took their positions across the field around the goal posts, there was only one thing the Kiwis could do.
“The whole time I was just looking into the sky like ‘oh my God, please don’t get this over. Please don’t get this over’,” Black Ferns halfback Kendra Cocksedge said.
“You hate saying that, but it’s the reality of it.”
It was a moment the Black Ferns season had been building up to. After a disappointing northern tour with two losses apiece to France and England, this was their first opportunity to atone and show just how far they have come under Wayne Smith’s regime; an opportunity that ultimately came down to the opposition’s goal kicker.
Drouin did not strike the ball well at all, and it fell in the waiting arms of co-captain Kennedy Simon. Simon, who had missed the majority of the tournament through injury, suddenly found herself with the chance to ensure her side progressed into the final.
Caroline Drouin of France missed the crucial penalty. Photo / Photosport
With thoughts of passing the ball out wide, such is the style the Black Ferns have become accustomed to playing, Simon had to make a choice.
“As soon as she hit the ball, I was ‘Oh, it’s going over’, and then it didn’t. And my eyes just lit up and then I was just chasing it and caught it, thinking about giving it to Portia [Woodman],” Simon admitted.
“I was like ‘no, we’ve got to hold onto this’.”
Simon took the ball into contact instead, and after a couple more phases of strong carries one-off the ruck, the hooter blared and Cocksedge send the ball into touch. They had survived and their next match would be a World Cup final on home soil.
“We knew it was going to be tough,” Black Ferns lock Maiakawanakaulani Roos said. “We prepared for it to be tough, but I don’t think you could ever dream of a game like that; you could never think it was going to end like that, but it did and we were lucky enough to be on the happy side of it.
“It’s what dreams are made of,” she said of progressing through to the final of their home tournament. “To see how far our team has come in the last year, who would have thought? It’s crazy.”
