{"id":781198,"date":"2026-09-24T15:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T15:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/781198\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T15:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T15:38:08","slug":"england-v-new-zealand-maddie-feaunati-returns-to-back-row-for-hosts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/781198\/","title":{"rendered":"England v New Zealand: Maddie Feaunati returns to back row for hosts"},"content":{"rendered":"

“We’re moving forward in the right direction whilst building depth in our cover,” said head coach John Mitchell.<\/p>\n

“New Zealand are playing good rugby at the moment and it’s no surprise to see them raise their standards.<\/p>\n

“Test matches against the best teams in the world are what we relish and look forward to, especially at Allianz Stadium.”<\/p>\n

New Zealand were the last team to beat the Red Roses, upsetting the tournament favourites in the final of the previous Women’s Rugby World Cup in November 2022.<\/p>\n

England have won the teams’ three meetings since – most recently running out 49-31 winners in October 2024<\/a> – but the Black Ferns have won all seven Tests they have played this year under new coach Whitney Hansen.<\/p>\n

“Our players are built different, we’re made for these moments,” said Hansen, who is the daughter of former All Blacks coach Steve Hansen.<\/p>\n

“We’ve continued to grow each week and we’re excited to put our rugby identity to the test against England, who are currently number one in the world. “<\/p>\n

Among Hansen’s selection is wing Ayesha Leti-I’iga, who scored two tries in her team’s World Cup final win over England, and teenage full-back Braxton Sorensen-McGee, who was one of the stars of the 2025 tournament.<\/p>\n

England; Kildunne; Breach, Jones (capt), Rowland, Moloney-MacDonald; Harrison, L Packer; Carson, Field, Bern, Talling, Ives Campion, Matthews, Kabeya, Feaunati<\/p>\n

Replacements: Campbell, Botterman, Muir, Burton, Packer, Hunt, Heard, Sing<\/p>\n

New Zealand: Sorensen-McGee; Paul, Brunt, Du Plessis, Leti-I’iga; H King, Joseph; Viliko, Ponsonby, Mahutariki-Fakalelu, Roos, Bayfield, Mikaele-Tu’u, E-P King, Olsen-Baker<\/p>\n

Replacements: Lolohea, Robinson, Taumata, Vaipulu, Sae, Turner, McGregor, Saili<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“We’re moving forward in the right direction whilst building depth in our cover,” said head coach John Mitchell.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":781199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-781198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=781198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}