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France and Canada confident in ability to disrupt a Black Ferns v England final

Ayesha Leti-I'iga of Black Ferns is stopped by Ian Jason. Photo by Christopher Lee/Getty Images

Favourites England and defending champions New Zealand have long been slated as most likely to face off in the women’s Rugby World Cup final, but France and Canada have other ideas heading into Saturday’s semi-finals at Eden Park.

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The French are the more likely spoilers having beaten New Zealand in their last four meetings, including back-to-back encounters during the Black Ferns’ tour of Europe last November.

Having helped dent the aura of the five-time world champions, France coach Thomas Darracq believes his team will not be overawed when they bid to reach the World Cup final for the first time at the spiritual home of New Zealand rugby.

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“The match in Eden Park will be unique, because it is a World Cup semi-final, because it is not an autumn tour,” he said on Thursday.

“It’s a really special moment. Having beaten them gives you that feeling that it’s playable. But even if we had lost, it would still be playable. But maybe this gives a little more strength to this group.”

New Zealand’s tour of Europe last year, when they also lost heavily to England twice, triggered significant changes within the Black Ferns set up early this season.

Former All Blacks assistant coach Wayne Smith was brought in to lead the team and he adopted a high-tempo running game he hoped would counter the remorseless forward power of the top Europeans.

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New Zealand have shown plenty of attacking flair throughout the tournament against lesser opponents but Smith knows the true test will come against the French on Saturday.

“We have decided as a group that we have to change the way we play,” he said. “It’s been quite a big job and I’ve got really good coaches working with me and we’re all pretty proud of what we’ve done, but now it’s crunch time.”

Twice champions England have been the best team in the world for a few years now and take on Canada knowing a 30th consecutive win will take them into a sixth straight World Cup final.

The Red Roses can run the ball but their game is more about field position and forward power, in particular a lineout drive that is all but impossible to stop legally.

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Coach Simon Middleton is, however, expecting a tough test against a Canada team that also prides itself on its forward play.

“It’s going to be a very physical game up front,” he said.

“They have a fantastic team and it’s going to be a tough set-piece battle. We’ve looked at a few different variations on things now and we’ll see how it goes.”

Canada, who lost to the Red Roses in the 2014 final, have not beaten England in eight matches going back to 2016 but coach Kevin Rouet believes his side can trigger an upset if they are at their best.

“Scrum and lineouts are the basics, you just have to be efficient in them if you want to win the game,” he said.

“The kicking game also because we know England is very good at that, and after that if we open the game we have a lot of stuff to show ourselves.”

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J
JW 1 hour ago
Leicester Fainga'anuku denied All Blacks eligibility for TRC

I don’t get that. I got the opposite, this was something Lester really really wanted to do. NZR is not going to stop him doing that by putting ridiculous money in front of him (noted you were only asking for fair money).


I wouldn’t say this was a Mo’unga or Frizell situation where there talent only was unlocked after they signed abroad, when Schmidt and Ryan came in respectively. LF was on a good trajectory, and he just decided he has the perfect window of opportunity to go abroad while he’s not first choice, learn and live in France to come back better and have a good shot at the perfect age. I think he recongised that.


Agreed that our rotation has been off the the last decade, players have not been moved on when they should, but I wouldn’t include Rieko in that discussion, though I would accept he is more of a marketing than performance signing.


Also agree it is a strange condunrum that results from the misalligned seasons, where Lester is straight into NPC in the same season almost. When really the ‘start’ of his contract is next year. Is he even going to be on the payroll at the moment? Could it be used as a double dip to encourage players back, a ‘bonus international season’ of match fees.


But they also don’t want them to become anymore common. So perhaps everything is fine? Like I was alluding to with Toko, they would need multiple markers of their own in Top 14 for them to be able to gauge off. As I’ve said in previous articles I’d be comfortable to expand sabbaticals to 2 in every position (yes a huge change), so that the was a core group of 30 of the top players all aligned with the ABs and overseas at any one time. This would ensure there are good markers to correlate levels of performance amongst everyone. This is a very similar setup/size to South Africa. It is like the AB modem in a wider organism, the vets are shipped off much earlier, and the core of next cycle is brought through. No missing out on the JGPs or Aki’s, no the Antonio’s or young Patrick Tuifua’s to france, keeping the Chandler Cunningham-South’s or Roots brothers, evan this Dubious guy from the French team was playing rugby here in NZ and could have stayed with a more ground up focus on bringing players through, not paying them much etc lol

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