{"id":35220,"date":"2025-09-21T16:52:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T16:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/35220\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T16:52:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T16:52:16","slug":"black-ferns-humbling-all-felt-very-inevitable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/35220\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Ferns humbling ‘all felt very inevitable’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Black Ferns\u2019 reign as world champions came to a stunning halt in Bristol as Canada<\/a> outplayed them in every department to book a place in the Rugby World Cup<\/a> final. And while the result itself was historic, the reaction online was telling.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the loss bookended a sobering six days for New Zealand<\/a> rugby.<\/p>\n

Just a week earlier, the All Blacks<\/a> suffered a record thrashing at the hands of South Africa<\/a> in the Rugby Championship, prompting questions about the health of both national programmes. For the Black Ferns, the defeat marked the end of an era of dominance at Rugby World Cups that stretched for 18 games.<\/p>\n

Radio host Martin Devlin pulled no punches, reminding followers of his mid-season warnings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s in our DNA,\u201d the Black Ferns described of their frenetic way-too-risky style of play after losing to Canada earlier this season. I did warn against this at the time. Now they\u2019ve been cruelly exposed & humbled when it matters most. Sadly it all felt very inevitable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The debate quickly broadened beyond tactics. Rugby writer Jamie Wall pointed to the financial disparity between the two semi-finalists, painting a picture of a David versus Goliath battle in terms of relative warchests.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Black Ferns, a team that\u2019s had millions invested in them for the last cycle, just got knocked out by Canadian side that GoFundMe-ed their way to [the] World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

UK journalist Stephen Jones<\/a> echoed the theme, also hailing Canada\u2019s achievement on minimal resources:<\/p>\n

\u201cHow to reach the World Cup final on a shoestring. Crowdfunded. Magnificent from Canada, they will be dangerous in the final. Black Ferns demolished.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others preferred to dwell less on New Zealand\u2019s failings and more on the scale of Canada\u2019s display. One widely shared post summed it up:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was the greatest performance by a Canadian XVs rugby team. The Black Ferns were outplayed, outskilled, and outmatched today. At no point did Canada look to be on the backfoot. Historical.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Black Ferns now turn their focus to next Saturday\u2019s bronze medal match.<\/p>\n

Black Ferns co-captain Kennedy Tukuafu admitted she was \u201cgutted\u201d after the semi-final defeat, while director of performance Allan Bunting reflected: \u201cSport is pretty tough sometimes. It can break your heart. We get another opportunity, which is a good thing, to play for our country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Black Ferns\u2019 reign as world champions came to a stunning halt in Bristol as Canada outplayed them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-35220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}