World champion-slaying Ireland secure unprecedented record against Black Ferns

Ireland refused to get carried away in the wake of their nerve-jangling WXV 1 victory against New Zealand as head coach Scott Bemand insisted it was merely the “next step” in the team’s increasingly impressive journey.

Erin King and Dannah O’Brien were the heroines at BC Place on Sunday as the former scored two tries in the final 14 minutes and the latter converted the second to give her side a famous 29-27 win.

Bemand admitted Ireland had to do a “bit of hanging on” to stick with the world champion Black Ferns in the opening stages in Vancouver, they also had to survive a scrum with the clock in the red, but they were well worth the victory.

The impressive Aoife Wafer twice crossed the whitewash in the first half, while Neve Jones also dotted down before the break to give the Irish the platform for King’s late heroics. In restricting New Zealand to only three tries and 12 points from the boot of Renee Holmes, Bemand’s side displayed a huge amount of defensive resolve too.

It means Ireland are now the only team in world rugby with a winning record against the six-time Women’s Rugby World Cup winners, albeit from only three meetings, and their fine run under the former England coach continues.

This time last year Bemand was preparing his squad for the life in WXV 3, having taken the reigns in the wake of their sixth-placed finish in the Guinness Women’s Six Nations 2023.

Ireland won that tournament and used the experience as a springboard to success in this year’s Six Nations in which, despite a crushing 88-10 defeat to England in Twickenham, they finished third to qualify for WXV 1 and Women’s RWC 2025.

“[It’s an] important step. We always talk about keeping the momentum going, we always said we wanted to be, first and foremost, a really hard team to play against and at 60 minutes when we're in it I think we started to believe,” Bemand said.

“I think we started to really believe in what we've been doing behind the scenes and how that transmits to the pitch. Examples would be, you know, we managed to put them into their half, and we defended for our lives inside their half.

“So, we're building. We’re building minutes, we're building important moments within games, which feeds the evidence really, which feeds the confidence bank.

“So, we're getting there. It's the next step.”

Bemand praised the work of his coaching staff, which has been bolstered by Alex Codling, Hugh Hogan and Marie Louise Reilly ahead of WXV 1, and his players’ ability to put the Black Ferns “in the positions that we wanted to” defensively and at the set piece.

“We've been preparing all week for a physical game,” he added.

“They got the territory piece right; they got the physical bit right and then they were able to execute amongst the highest pressure.”

Ireland captain Edel McMahon revealed the players went into the game with “massive belief” they could beat the Black Ferns.

“It's an unbelievable feeling but the group had a massive belief all week,” she said of leading Ireland to their second win against New Zealand.

“We believe in what we're doing. We believe in the connections that we have with each other. We believe in the staff.

“We work really, really hard off pitch. We work even harder on pitch; we're competing every training session.

“So, for us that just validates exactly what we're doing and I couldn't be more proud of the girls.”

Black Ferns co-captain Ruahei Demant admitted defeat was a “bitter pill to swallow” but she added that the “good news is we can get better”.

New Zealand director of rugby Allan Bunting added: “We gave them 100 per cent respect. I wasn't surprised by the intensity.

“They've played Six Nations, we've been watching them quite carefully, and we knew that that was coming. Credit to them.”