{"id":148325,"date":"2025-09-16T21:46:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T21:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/148325\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T21:46:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T21:46:10","slug":"black-ferns-find-blessing-in-disguise-in-tough-bok-women-quarter-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/148325\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Ferns find \u2018blessing in disguise\u2019 in tough Bok Women quarter-final"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New Zealand<\/a> have taken plenty of positives out of last weekend\u2019s hard-fought first-half against South Africa<\/a> in the 2025 Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup<\/a> quarter-finals, with assistant coach Steve Jackson explaining how \u201cit was a blessing in disguise.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the first time ever, the Springbok Women qualified for a quarter-final after defeating Brazil<\/a> and Italy<\/a> in pool play. After a final-round loss to France, it wouldn\u2019t get any easier for them though, with the Black Ferns claiming the top seed out of Pool C.<\/p>\n

The Black Ferns recorded big wins over Spain<\/a> and Japan<\/a> before facing Ireland<\/a> in the third week of the group stage. Ireland had beaten the New Zealanders in their last meeting, but the defending World Cup winners put on a clinic as they ran away with a 40-0 triumph.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Head-to-Head <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Last 3 Meetings<\/p>\n

Average Points scored<\/p>\n

\"VideoPortia Woodman-Wickliffe receives Women\u2019s Top 50 award<\/p>\n

New Zealand Women\u2019s superstar Portia Woodman-Wickliffe spoke to RugbyPass after receiving the prestigious, inaugural RugbyPass Women\u2019s Top 50 award this week. <\/p>\n

View Top 50<\/a><\/p>\n

\"VideoPortia Woodman-Wickliffe receives Women\u2019s Top 50 award<\/p>\n

New Zealand Women\u2019s superstar Portia Woodman-Wickliffe spoke to RugbyPass after receiving the prestigious, inaugural RugbyPass Women\u2019s Top 50 award this week. <\/p>\n

New Zealand were widely considered strong favourites ahead of their clash with South Africa, but the Springbok Women had 80 per cent of possession during the first half, as they held the Black Ferns to a 10-all score going into the break.<\/p>\n

Braxton Sorensen-McGee, Renee Holmes<\/a> and Kaipo Olsen-Baker<\/a> all crossed for second-half doubles as the Black Ferns ran away with a 46-17 win, \u00a0but the scoreboard doesn\u2019t tell the full story \u2013 that opening 40 and the response after the half was what the Black Ferns needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what we said after the game, we said that\u2019s probably what we needed going into the semi-final. Take your hat off to South Africa,\u201d Jackson told reporters in Bristol.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just held onto the ball for long periods of time and they have big forwards and they\u2019re really physical. It\u2019s just a good hit out that we needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe defended pretty well but it was good also for our leaders. Come into the sheds at half-time at 10-all, they were calm, they were very direct in terms of their messaging at half-time around what was expected when we went out there in the second half and the players delivered.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe said during the week, South Africa are going to be emotional, they\u2019re going to be up for it, first time in a World Cup quarter-final.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe it was a blessing in disguise for us because we need to make sure that we start really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Zealand claimed the Pacific Four Series<\/a> title in May, before defeating Jo Yapp\u2019s Wallaroos in Wellington and then flying to England<\/a> for the World Cup. In Pac Four, the Black Ferns claimed a thrilling 27-all draw with Canada, who are their opponents for this weekend\u2019s semi-final.<\/p>\n

Canada<\/a> are yet to lose a Test in 2025, and will take a wealth of confidence out of their draw with the Black Ferns, which followed a first-ever win away to New Zealand last year. The Black Ferns have since beaten the USA<\/a> and Australia, before an unbeaten run at the World Cup to date.<\/p>\n

Two-time Rugby World Cup winner Stacey Waaka<\/a> has warned Canada that they haven\u2019t \u201cplayed the best of the Black Ferns.\u201d After big wins over Ireland and South Africa, there\u2019s genuine belief within the Black Ferns group, but they aren\u2019t done chasing improvement either.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been searching for that. We\u2019re pretty close in the Irish game but we\u2019re still looking for that,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can get a really good 70-minute performance in this game then we\u2019ll be extremely happy and then the rest will take care of itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been building this whole tournament, changing a few things here and there but we\u2019re pretty happy with where we\u2019re at at the moment. Last weekend\u2019s game was just what we needed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand have taken plenty of positives out of last weekend\u2019s hard-fought first-half against South Africa in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-148325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148325","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=148325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}