{"id":256942,"date":"2025-11-02T05:39:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T05:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/256942\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T05:39:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T05:39:09","slug":"australia-jillaroos-defeat-new-zealand-kiwi-ferns-10-4-at-eden-park-in-auckland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/256942\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia Jillaroos defeat New Zealand Kiwi Ferns 10-4 at Eden Park in Auckland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Australia fullback Abbi Church has produced a spectacular Test debut in a hard-fought 10-4 Pacific Cup win over New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Church, 27, came into the starting side when first-choice fullback Tamika Upton was ruled out with a calf strain, and set up a try before scoring one herself at Eden Park.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">It was a debut to remember in a titanic and physically gruelling struggle between the world&#8217;s two best teams, who will meet again in the tournament&#8217;s final in Sydney on November 9.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">The first half was physical, with both sides defending brilliantly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Halfback Jesse Southwell had put up a kick for winger Julia Robinson to dive and catch the ball on the full and score a cracker last week against Samoa, and she tried it again. Robinson raced towards the ball, but it just eluded her grasp.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">The hosts also showcased a slick kicking game with five-eighth Patricia Maliepo a stand-out. Half Raecene McGregor slid a deft kick through for fullback Apii Nicholls to just be denied by a last ditch effort by Church.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/iview.abc.net.au\/show\/end-game-with-tony-armstrong\" data-component=\"FullBleedLink\" class=\"RelatedCard_link__rsgR9 FullBleedLink_root__lTw_U interactive_focusContext__yRhc_ interactive_defaults__AKxUU FullBleedLink_showVisited__g3Xvz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Stream End Game with Tony Armstrong on ABC iview<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP RelatedCard_synopsis__cFwMW Typography_sizeMobile14__u7TGe Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Tony Armstrong tackles Australia&#8217;s overdue reckoning with racism in sport with the help of some of its biggest sports stars.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Parramatta flyer Church, who ran for 197m, showed great awareness in a short-side play to set up star winger Jessica Sergis for the only try of the first half. In the 32nd minute, the Sydney Roosters powerhouse beat three defenders with strength and determination.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Church scored in the 43rd minute after chasing a Southwell kick to give the visitors a 10-0 lead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">The Ferns were not done. Second-rower Annessa Biddle raced 78m from a standing start to score a sensational individual try and set up a thrilling final 20 minutes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">The hosts almost levelled when centre Abigail Roche grounded a McGregor kick on the dead-ball line.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Jillaroos hooker Keeley Davis suffered an early elbow injury and could be in doubt for the final.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">AAP<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"Link_link__5eL5m ScreenReaderOnly_srLinkHint__OysWz Link_showVisited__C1Fea Link_showFocus__ALyv2\" href=\"https:\/\/iview.abc.net.au\/show\/end-game-with-tony-armstrong\" data-component=\"Link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"End Game banner\" width=\"2048\" height=\"256\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/f699287f8e5041c0ab8b446474ab8c9f\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-uri=\"coremedia:\/\/image\/105900810\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia fullback Abbi Church has produced a spectacular Test debut in a hard-fought 10-4 Pacific Cup win over&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[121831,5844,64,63,16043,40040,1736,44,159,588,125237],"class_list":["post-256942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-abbi-church","tag-abc-sport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-jillaroos","tag-kiwi-ferns","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-rugby-league","tag-sport","tag-test-match"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256942","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=256942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}