{"id":640687,"date":"2026-10-25T07:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T07:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/640687\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T07:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T07:44:09","slug":"kiwi-ferns-v-france-new-zealand-claim-record-win-in-christchurch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/640687\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiwi Ferns v France: New Zealand claim record win in Christchurch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\">Former Black Ferns Sevens star Tenika Willison also impressed on her Kiwi Ferns debut, crossing for two tries, while fellow debutant Chantay Kiria-Ratu had a personal haul of 22 points, with a try and nine conversions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\">The victory surpassed the Kiwi Ferns\u2019 previous biggest win, an 88-0 thrashing of France in 2013, while matching the Jillaroos\u2019 92-0 victory over the same opposition at the last World Cup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWe went back to the drawing board after last week\u2019s game,\u201d McGregor told Sky Sport.<\/p>\n<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWe were a little bit disappointed with how we came away with that win. We worked really hard at training and I think it showed out there this weekend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cOur plan was to go through the front door and I believe that we did that and we got some good offloads away and yeah, we were lucky to score so many tries.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\">While the result was emphatic for New Zealand, it was another dismal display from France who found themselves on the wrong side of history once again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\">The Kiwi Ferns had 74% possession and ran for 1782m. Compare that to France who completed just eight of their 15 sets while running for 314m.<\/p>\n<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\">France had first use of the ball, but dropped it on the third play of the game. The Kiwi Ferns scored with their first set through Mackenzie Wiki and didn\u2019t look back.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Stacey Waaka scored in the Kiwi Ferns' Rugby League World Cup clash against France. Photo \/ Photosport\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Stacey Waaka scored in the Kiwi Ferns&#8217; Rugby League World Cup clash against France. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\">The win all but ensures the Kiwi Ferns will qualify for the semi-finals. They meet Papua New Guinea in their final group match next weekend on the Gold Coast.<\/p>\n<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\">While it was a clinical display from the Ferns, ultimately this performance and many others this tournament haven\u2019t been good for the international game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\">Out of the eight games played through two weeks so far, only last week\u2019s 18-12 win over Fiji for the Kiwi Ferns was decided by six points or fewer. The rest have all been won by margins of 36 or more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\">This weekend alone, Samoa beat Wales 76-0, while Australia beat England 78-0.<\/p>\n<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\">Should the Kiwis Ferns beat PNG, they will finish top of Group B and would face face group A runner up, England or Samoa, in the semi-finals in Newcastle on November 7.<\/p>\n<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\">Kiwi Ferns 92 (Mackenzie Wiki 2, Stacey Waaka 3, Apii Nicholls 3, Chantay Kiria-Ratu, Raecene McGregor 2, Mele Hufanga 3, Kaiyah Atai, Tenika Willison 2 tries; Chantay Kiria-Ratu 9 con, Apii Nicholls con).<\/p>\n<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\">France 0 <\/p>\n<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\">HT: 46-0 <\/p>\n<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/author\/ben-francis\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/author\/ben-francis\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ben Francis<\/a> is an Auckland-based reporter for the New Zealand Herald who covers breaking sports news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Black Ferns Sevens star Tenika Willison also impressed on her Kiwi Ferns debut, crossing for two tries,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4487,2741,10541,1221,78,194,117,111,139,69,1974,213,6027,80],"class_list":["post-640687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-christchurch","tag-claim","tag-ferns","tag-france","tag-in","tag-kiwi","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-record","tag-sports","tag-win","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640687","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=640687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}