France resist Black Ferns comeback to claim famous WXV1 victory

The world champion Black Ferns had not faced France since a tight semi-final at the Rugby World Cup last year. This Test promised to be just as tense as both nations got their debut WXV1 campaigns underway in Wellington.

France's defence was the star of the show, rushing the Black Ferns' dangerous backline, offering no breathing room and holding New Zealand to their lowest score since 2021's Northern Tour.

The Black Ferns pressed deep into France's 22 in the opening minutes, testing the desire of their opponents. Metres were made but ultimately France withstood the onslaught, winning a breakdown turnover to relieve pressure after the demanding opening stanza.

France absorbed more pressure off the ensuing lineout but Emilie Boulard read the play expertly to steal the pass and run 60 metres, outpacing Renee Holmes in the footrace to score the opening points of the match.

The offloads were flowing for the Black Ferns and the fluent attack was bursting the French line in every other phase. Deft touches at the line saw New Zealand burn through metres and again test the French defence on the try line. This time, Liana Mikaele-Tu'u rumbled over and the scores were locked.

The pace was unrelenting and the next big play came from Cyrielle Banet, who made a sweeping run before fending the final defender to run in France's second try.

France were instantly back on defence upon the resumption of play. Possession was hard won for the French who were often defending deep in their own half with a clearance kick the only course of action once possession was retrieved.

It wasn't until the half-hour mark that France were able to get the ball in hand with a decent field position. Their few attacking opportunities prior had been exceptionally well taken, but phase play was a physical contest and the battle at the gain line was fierce.

A penalty in front of the posts saw France take the three, pushing their lead to 15-7, where it stayed heading into the halftime break.

It was an untidy start to the second period and France again profited with three points from right out in front.

The Black Ferns looked out of sync on attack, overrunning their lines and missing passes that were going to hand earlier.

With the French defensive line applying heavy pressure, New Zealand found more pay through hard runs from their forwards in tight. But, that is not the identity of this team and the persistence to get the ball wide continued to put the breakdown under all sorts of pressure as backs were caught behind the gain line.

A scrum penalty won the Black Ferns a shot at the posts and Renee Holmes obliged to bring it back to a one-score deficit.

The ambition in New Zealand's offload game continued to cause more harm than good, surrendering possession and handing France broken play attacking opportunities.

Compounding the New Zealanders' problems was a red card to Chryss Viliko, who made blatantly dangerous contact on the side of the breakdown in the 65th minute.

Being down a player only galvanized the group and once the offloads started sticking, the Black ferns were on the front foot looking dangerous.

Katelyn Vahaakolo collected a chip through from Ruby Tui and Ruahei Demant slotted the conversion to close the gap to a single point.

The score made for a tense final six minutes. Just like that semi-final one year ago, the slimmest of margins separated the two but this time it was France in the drivers seat and the visitors' superb defence saw them close the match on top. Final score: 18-17.