Grant enjoying life at the back

She says that there is more to come from the Black Ferns as they prepare to face England for the third World Cup final in a row.

Against France Grant was in superb form, with some clever footwork and line breaking showing her full range of skills.

Well we thought before the match that France would really take it to us up front," she said.

"They have a good pack but the aim of our game was to put as many points as possible on them in the first half and try and spread the ball which we did so we are very happy. Our forwards stepped up and we were able to get ahead early.

Alongside Carla Hohepa and Renee Wickliffe, Grant forms part of a devastating back three trio and she says the familiarity among the three players has been a factor in their success.

It felt like there was a lot of space out there against France and with Carla and Rennee on the wings its pretty easy for a fullback. I just feed them and they go! I think defensively we havent been tested much back there yet - no-one has kicked much to us but we have worked together a lot with 7s and at other levels so if we do get tested I think we can cope well.

While all the talk has been about the pressure on England as the home team there is always a weight of expectation on the Black Ferns to reach and win every World Cup.

We put pressure on ourselves to raise the bar. Grant says.

We feel have a role to play in bettering the standard of womens rugby and we want to play good rugby every time we go out there and hopefully that comes across when we run it so often. I think we can raise that bar even more there is more to come from us. We are making mistakes still and weve got things to work on. We can be occasionally patchy but we have obviously got to be happy with our form.

Grant, who captained New Zealand earlier in this competition, praised the level of support the team is getting.

Its been great. Weve all had heaps of family and friends get here, my husband got here for the semis and weve got lots of support and the ex-pat Kiwi community in London. We are thoroughly enjoying it.