{"id":126986,"date":"2025-09-08T04:26:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T04:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/126986\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T04:26:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T04:26:21","slug":"womens-rugby-world-cup-the-challenge-black-ferns-laid-down-in-ireland-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/126986\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup: The challenge Black Ferns laid down in Ireland win"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe 0, that\u2019s probably something I\u2019m most proud of because I\u2019m a D leader and we\u2019ve put a lot of work into that. Our D lead, Jacko [Steve Jackson], has put a lot of thought and care into our system, and it just goes to show that when you\u2019re really connected<\/a> and you care for each other, you can go the whole way.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Black Ferns had marginally less possession and a lot of the game was played in their territory, but Ireland were not able to breach their line. <\/p>\n

Tukuafu, who was moved to a bench role after a successful comeback from injury to start against Japan, was among the stars for the Black Ferns last in the contest with her work defensively, making tackles and getting over the ball at the breakdown. <\/p>\n

But it was a whole team effort, with five players making double-digit tackles, led by Maiakawanakaulani Roos, who made 19 without a miss. According to ESPN stats, the Black Ferns made 91% of their attempted tackles. <\/p>\n

On attack, they linked up well and made the most of the opportunities they were creating. Young gun Braxton Sorensen-McGee ran for more than 100m and scored another hat-trick, Logo-I-Pulotu Lemapu-Atai\u2019i Sylvia Brunt ran with intent with her team-high 12 carries, Renee Holmes injected herself into the line well, while their kicking game was well executed. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I learned about our team is that we can go all day,\u201d Tukuafu said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever teams throw at us, we\u2019ll give it even more. We\u2019ll be fast to get back into position to have another go or make another tackle, drive them back some more, and, at the end of it, turn the ball over hopefully.\u201d <\/p>\n

With the win, the Black Ferns finished at the top of the group. That saw them book a quarter-final against South Africa, after the latter were beaten by France in their final outing of pool play. <\/p>\n

Ireland had beaten the Black Ferns in 2024 and held a winning record over the New Zealand side with two wins from three tests. <\/p>\n

Tukuafu admitted that 2024 result probably lingered for a few players in the Black Ferns squad, but Monday morning\u2019s performance showed what they were capable of. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as we didn\u2019t focus on that, it was in the back of the girls\u2019 that played minds,\u201d she said of last year\u2019s loss. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, that was a nice statement, but it does show that we were just simply playing to our potential. We\u2019ve got strike weapons all over the field and, when we kicked it, there was just that desperation to go and get it back and score some tries.\u201d <\/p>\n

Christopher Reive<\/a> joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe 0, that\u2019s probably something I\u2019m most proud of because I\u2019m a D leader and we\u2019ve put a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,17356,303,15256,3933,38019,26046,5587,4717,26779,88848,8936,46677,760,85,10965,320,1928,1050,8935,24351,1720],"class_list":["post-126986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-away","tag-black","tag-challenge","tag-cup","tag-down","tag-ferns","tag-from","tag-in","tag-ireland","tag-laid","tag-over","tag-plenty","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-take","tag-the","tag-their","tag-will","tag-win","tag-womens","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}