New Zealand beat England to win series
New Zealand scored a last second try to clinch a 14-9 win over England in Waikato and win the three test series 2-0 with a game to come.
Published by Alison Donnelly, July 20th, 2013
6 minute read
Katy McLean had kicked England into a 6-0 lead with her side dominating the opening half, particularly up front.
England's scrum and lineout put New Zealand under huge pressure in the opening half with flanker Marlie Packer continuing her great form to help England retain the lead at the break, despite losing Jo McGilchrist to the sin bin for a dangerous tackle.
New Zealand, helped by the introduction of prop Stephanie Te Ohaere-Fox, shored their scrum up well in the second half and were much improved up front in the second half. Wave after wave of attack, led by Casey Robinson, Selicia Winiata and Amiria Rule, finally saw them break through for a score through Portia Woodman.
The kick from Kelly Braizer nudged New Zealand 7-6 ahead.
With just four minutes to play though, New Zealand were penalised right in front of the posts and McLean stepped up to strike over what looked like a winning score.
With the clock in red, New Zealand showed great courage to run the ball from deep inside their own 22 with Rule instrumental in getting it wide to Woodman and Winiata who combined brilliantly to score the winning try, with Winiata touching down. Brazier put the icing on the cake with the conversion.
Post-match quotes:
Selica Winiata on her match-winning try: “To be honest, it was just pin my ears back, don’t look back and just go for that white line. You could just hear the crowd getting behind me but I didn’t know if that was because someone was on my back ….”
Kelly Brazier on a lacklustre first half: “England pretty much starved us of the ball, but only six points behind so we knew we were still in it, it was just a matter of getting our hands on the ball and playing in the right area of the park, and I think we started to do that in the second half and luckily we came away with the win there."
Captain Fiao’o Fa’amausili on the outside backs: “That’s definitely one of our weapons … to have that speed out wide and to execute our moves to a T is even better.”
Coach Brian Evans on the result: “It was a great result in the end, but a bit of heart attack material wasn’t it? I was pleased that they hung on in and won, that showed huge character. As a performance, the first half was pretty dreadful to be honest. We were disappointed, the scrum, line out was messy, penalised often, but the second half I thought we played some good rugby in the end.”
England captain Sarah Hunter on what went wrong: “I think we’re still trying to piece it together really. I think we had a good first half, we seemed to have the edge in the first half, came in and again early doors, the Black Ferns came at us, and pinned us in our own half and we struggled at times to get out of it and then they took the lead. But all credit to the girls, they worked really hard to take that lead back, and I honestly thought we’d snatched the victory, and then all of a sudden a late try, down the wing … the Black Ferns took it. A bit of devastation really the fact that we fought back to get but it wasn’t to be our evening tonight.”
England Coach Gary Street on the game plan: "We just needed to execute a bit better, I think we needed to work the breakdown harder, which we did I thought, in the first half we managed to free some ball up, and to try to create some chances. It soon became a heavy weight slug in the middle, like two heavy weight boxers slugging each other and we fell over at the end. It's all big lessons for us, the World Cup is our big focus next August and these are massive lessons for us."
Black Ferns (1-15): Ruth McKay, Fiao’o Faamausili, Melodie Bosman, Jackie Patea, Vita Dryden, Rawinia Everitt, Justine Lavea,Casey Robertson, Emma Jensen, Kelly Brazier Renee Wickliffe, Amiria Rule, Claire Richardson, Selica Winiata, Victoria Grant
Replacements: Karina Stowers, Kathleen Wilton, Stephanie Te Ohaere – Fox, Eloise Blackwell, Charmaine McMenamin, Kendra Cocksedge, Portia Woodman, Mele Hufanga
England: 15. Kay Wilson 14. Francesca Matthews 13. Emily Scarratt 12 Rachael Burford 11.), Michaela Staniford 10. Katy Mclean 9. Natasha Hunt 1. Laura Keates 2. Victoria Fleetwood 3. Sophie Hemming 4. Joanne McGilchrist 5. Emily Braund 6. Sarah Hunter , 7. Marlie Packer 8. Harriet Millar-Mills
Replacements: 16. Emma Croker 17. Kate Newton 18. Rochelle Clark 19. Tamara Taylor 20. Alexandra Matthews 21. La Toya Mason 22. Ceri Large 23. Sally Tuson