Women's RWC

[qwerty51]

Liana Mikaele-Tu’u ruled out of the GF with a thumb injury.

Best player gone.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

^ McMenamin is a handy replacement but more steady than dynamic which is what I think we're going to need v Ringinland esp if the weather is wet & windy as forecast.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

GF teams named:

Black Ferns: Renee Holmes, Ruby Tui, Stacey Fluhler, Theresa Fitzpatrick, Portia Woodman, Ruahei Demant (co-c), Kendra Cocksedge, Charmaine McMenamin, Sarah Hirini, Alana Bremner, Chelsea Bremner, Maiakawanakaulani Roos, Amy Rule, Georgia Ponsonby, Phillipa Love; Reserves: Luka Connor, Krystal Murray, Santo Taumata, Joanah Ngan-Woo, Kennedy Simon (co-c), Ariana Bayler, Hazel Tubic, Ayesha Leti-I’iga

England: Ellie Kildunne, Lydia Thompson, Emily Scarratt, Holly Aitchison, Abby Dow, Zoe Harrison, Leanne Infante, Sarah Hunter (c), Marlie Packer, Alex Matthews, Abbie Ward, Zoe Aldcroft, Sarah Bern, Amy Cokayne, Vickii Cornborough; Reserves: Lark Davies, Maud Muir, Shaunagh Brown, Cath O’Donnell, Poppy Cleall, Sadia Kabeya, Claudia MacDonald, Tatyana Heard

Looks like the worst of the shit weather may hit Auckland tomorrow rather than on Saturday as earlier forecast.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

France 22-0 Canada at HT in the Btonze match.

A weather window has opened between the fronts coming down from the tropics so will be warm & humid but unlikely to be wet for the GF. Plus Eden Park drains pretty well these days so hopefully a good track for NZ to show off their wide game.

Edit: one-way traffic, 36-0 going into the final quarter. Was expecting a France win but not by anything like this margin.

 

[AngrySeahorse]

French decided to take their rage out on poor Canada.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

^ who you on for the GF?

 

[AngrySeahorse]

^ who you on for the GF?

I was adament it would be England winning. But their performance vs Canada wasnt all that great.

Im a little conflicted. For world women's rugby going forward i want England to win. England have a professional set up and them winning demonstrates "hey you wanna compete? This is what you gotta do". I love an underdog and NZ winning will boost NZ womens rugby for sure but plenty will say "well NZ beat England without anywhere near the same financial investment so why bother". Believe me ive been involved in womens rugby a long time and people will have this outlook on funding if NZ win no matter how positive it is for NZ or how great the tornie has been.

Then again can I support England? Good grief what a timeline im living in...

I think this is how it goes down. Either England was looking ahead to the final v Canada so they're gonna refocus and come out and put on a strong win. Or they're really on a slide form wise at a bad time and NZ with home ground and crowd advantage just grow a leg and win in a tight one.

Im going to go with NZ rising to the occasion. But England losing is a bad look for womens rugby as far as the arguement towards professionalism goes.

 

[AngrySeahorse]

Reports are scrum half for england leanne infante out with injury lucy parker replacement. Big change is true.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

^^ I get where you're coming from but the professionalism genie is out of the bottle now, no way it's going back in so I think by the next WRWC there will be probably six or eight fully pro teams & by the one after that virtually everyone. Look at how quickly the men's game went pro & esp how quickly those initially opposed to it jumped on board, women's game will go the same way IMO.

 

[AngrySeahorse]

^^ I get where you're coming from but the professionalism genie is out of the bottle now, no way it's going back in so I think by the next WRWC there will be probably six or eight fully pro teams & by the one after that virtually everyone. Look at how quickly the men's game went pro & esp how quickly those initially opposed to it jumped on board, women's game will go the same way IMO.

Oh no im cool with professionalism in the rep ranks and its going to continue. Its just that if the fully professional team fails that could be used as an excuse the delay it more. If the team with the most professionalism wins i think it will accelerate it more elsewhere as we all try to adapt.

Not long now.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Red card all day long.

 

[AngrySeahorse]

Red card all day long.

Not the wrong call. But i just dont like one team being down 1 for the rest of the game. The carded shouldnt come back on but at some point somebody else should.

 

[Dan54]

By geez this English team is bloody good. That maul is unstoppable. Not sure losing a winger actually affect their gameplan much.
This could go either way still.

 

[Adam84]

Not the wrong call. But i just dont like one team being down 1 for the rest of the game. The carded shouldnt come back on but at some point somebody else should.

Well… the RFU were one of the governing bodies who opposed the change on red cards at test level … so tough luck for them

 

[Dan54]

Anyway, I sick of these onesided games!!! Bloody beauty!

Means we got a lot of new girls playing I expect!

 

[AngrySeahorse]

I knew if the NZers got it it would be a close one!

Still cant stand one team being down 1.

Poms should hold their head up. Boudicca would be proud of that resilience. They'll be back.

 

[Dan54]

I like the respect of both captains after game too.
I certainly didn't think the English did anything that didn't remind me how bloody good they are, and for all the moans etc of their maul, that's their strength, so any good team would use it. I even loved the way it was a battle of style!

 

[Joe King]

Well, did not see that one coming, even with the home ground/crowd advantage. Was going for England, but well done to the NZ girls. That was a massive effort! Fully deserved.

I'd love Australia to have a couple teams + Fijiana Dura join with NZ's 4 to hopefully enable Australia and Fiji to professionalise. Play Super W as a third tier later in the year (should still be able to have all the top players involved).

 

[Pfitzy]

After the red card the BFs shifted their attack to the vacant space and it paid dividends.

England call to throw 2 at the end a bit mystifying - they got marked there at a couple of earlier lineouts. Easy ball to 4 was a maul try and the (very small) Cup.

 

[AngrySeahorse]

To wrap it up i believe England, France, NZ will be top three again next time.

Bit of daylight to Canada but they should compete well again if they build on what they did this time around.

Australia. 2nd tier. No two ways about it. But i like the way we competed v NZ before the yellow cards. Prediction: we will be screwed by cards again and i will yet again complain about it.

Italy. Not in the top tier but showed improvement based on previous outings.

Wales. About the same.

Pretty much all others competed as expected but USA and Japan were the big disappointments. After Japan upset us i expected them to be more competitive.