Black Ferns win 1000th Test

England Women’s winning streak against the world champions New Zealand came to an end today at Eden Park in Auckland when the Black Ferns secured a flattering 29-10 victory.

It was New Zealand's first win over England in seven outings in a game where the hosts persevered despite some defensive dominance from the visitors for the first three quarters of the match.

From there they were able to set Eden Park alight with two tries in quick succession to seal a confidence building start to the three-Test International Series.

On the anniversary of the 1000th women’s rugby International Test match, the contest was fittingly a highly charged encounter with both sides evenly matched for most of the game. England had their chance early on to put some points on the board but fly-half Katy Mclean couldn’t convert a fourth minute penalty. Mclean’s opposite number Kelly Brazier too had her chances and she converted a 14th minute penalty to hand the home side the lead.

New Zealand continued to pressurise England in the first quarter as the vistors' attempts to take the offence were repeatedly from a series of penalties being given away at rucks, mainly for offside. In the end the Black Ferns broke loose with new cap Portia Woodman, a star of last month’s Sevens Rugby World Cup in Moscow, scoring on the 21st minute. England’s defence had held firm for some time, and Kat Merchant pulled off a try saving tackle to keep the Black Ferns at bay until England’s defence was stretched too thin by some good work from Kelly Brazier, giving Woodman the space she needed to break free, handing New Zealand a 8-0 lead.

The score, however, rallied England into action and the tourists this time were the side with the upper hand. Their forwards dined out on some disappointing New Zealand lineouts, and England looked threatening as they dominated possession - Merchant coming close to scoring.

But it was Bristol’s Marlie Packer who finally did the honours for England in the end, touching down for a crucial try on 30 minutes. The score came after Mclean missed a kick at goal and New Zealand knocked on, handing England a scrum just metres out from the Black Ferns’ try line. England’s pack fired up and Packer muscled her way over the line to score. Fullback Emily Scarratt then added the conversion to reduce New Zealand’s lead to just 8-7 at half-time.

Both sides looked to attack in the second half, and it was the Black Ferns who came out the stronger side as they started to dominate territory. Merchant and Scarratt kept their rivals at bay though with some impressive try saving tackles and in the end New Zealand had to settle for just a Brazier penalty when England were penalised for being offside.

England kept the match within their sights with a Scarratt penalty moments later making it 11-10, and some more impressive tackling from Scarratt and Kay Wilson on the ever present Woodman and Renee Wickliffe kept the deficit to just one point as the clock ticked down.

New Zealand continued to play the game at pace as England started to tire. Wickliffe's break proved the catalyst for another England penalty which Brazier duly converted to increase New Zealand's lead to seven points with some 10 minutes to play.

Amiria Rule, finally broke through England's defence in the 74th minute when the experienced centre found space on the left wing to finish off a good break and score. Flanker Justine Lavea then rubbed salt into England’s wounds with a 76th minute try. Brazier converted to make the final score 29-10.

England Head Coach Gary Street said: “Obviously we are disappointed because in the second-half we let it slip a bit; we started missing tackles whilst the Black Ferns took their opportunities. At the end of the first half we grew in confidence but then come the restart we lost our way.

“We’ll have a look at the footage, analyse it well and make sure we learn from it for our next game on Tuesday. We have certainly got to improve our accuracy with the ball at the breakdown and make sure we don’t give the referee so many chances to penalise us.  We scrummaged well and our line-out defence was good, and at times we opened up New Zealand well. We have got to do more of that next week.”

Despite the crucial knock-on that got England back into the match, New Zealand's Casey Robertson had an outstanding match and looked dangerous whenever she carried the ball from the back of the scrum. Woodman, too, looked dangerous and proved her wares with some strong tackles as the last defender. In addition Renee Wickliffe was impressive, her astonishing runs cutting through the England line.

For England Marlie Packer had a great game and, with captain Sarah Hunter leading from the back of the scrum, the English pack dominated the set-pieces at times. In addition, and despite a couple of missed attempts, Katy McLean orchestrated the English backs well.

England

15 Emily Scarratt (Lichfield), 14 Katherine Merchant (Worcester), 13 Rachael Burford (Thurrock), 12 Amber Reed (Bristol), 11 Kay Wilson (Bristol), 10 Katy McLean (Darlington Mowden Park Sharks) (VC), 9 La Toya Mason (Wasps), 1 Rochelle Clark (Worcester), 2 Emma Croker (Richmond), 3 Sophie Hemming (Bristol), 4 Joanne McGilchrist (Wasps), 5 Tamara Taylor (Lichfield), 6 Alexandra Matthews (Richmond), 7 Marlie Packer (Bristol), 8 Sarah Hunter (C) (Lichfield), Replacements: 16 Victoria Fleetwood (Lichfield), 17 Laura Keates, (Worcester), 18 Kate Newton (Bristol), 19 Emily Braund (Lichfield), 20 Isabelle Noel-Smith (Bristol), 21 Natasha Hunt (Lichfield), 22 Ceri Large (Worcester), 23 Michaela Staniford (Wasps).0

Tries: Packer; Conversions: Scarratt; Penalties: Scarratt

Substitutions: Noel Smith for Matthews (HT), Fleetwood for Croker (53), Keates for Clark, Hunt for Mason (both 60), Braund for Packer (61), Staniford for Wilson (62), Newton for Hemming, Large for Reed (both 70).

New Zealand

15 Victoria Grant, 14 Portia Woodman, 13 Claire Richardson, 12 Amiria Rule, 11 Renee Wickliffe, 10 Kelly Brazier, 9 Kendra Cocksedge, 1 Ruth McKay,  2 Fiao’o Faamausili, 3 Melodie Bosman, 4 Rawinia Everitt, 5 Vita Dryden, 6 Aroha Savage, 7 Justine Lavea, 8 Casey Robertson. Replacements: 16 Karina Stowers, 17 Kathleen Wilton, 18 Stephanie Te Ohaere, 19 Jackie Patea, 20 Charmaine McMenami,  21 Emma Jensen, 22 Chelsea Alley, 23 Selica Winiata

Tries: Woodman, Rule, Lavea; Conversions: Brazier; Penalties: Brazier (4)

Remaining matches:

New Zealand v England, Tuesday July 16, KO 8am BST, Waikato Stadium

New Zealand v England, Saturday July 20, KO 335am BST, ECOLight Stadium.