New Zealand have beaten England in five World Cup finals and were once the undisputed number one team in the world.<\/p>\n
That dominance has faded in recent years, particularly after their failure to reach last year’s World Cup final.<\/p>\n
Despite a fourth straight defeat by the Red Roses, it is clear under Hansen that the Black Ferns are trending in the right direction.<\/p>\n
That comes after increased investment in the domestic game, with Super Rugby Aupiki operating as a fully professional, full-time competition for the first time this year.<\/p>\n
“We didn’t want a draw,” New Zealand head coach Whitney Hansen said.<\/p>\n
“After watching last week [against Canada], we knew we were going to fight to the death, so I love that she threw that pass.<\/p>\n
“I think for us, win or lose, we’re about our performance. We’ve talked heaps about what does great look like – where have we achieved that and where haven’t we?”<\/p>\n
Next year, the British and Irish Lions women’s team will tour New Zealand for the first time.<\/p>\n
A competitive series is essential to the success of the tour.<\/p>\n
Prior to last year’s epic finale at Allianz Stadium, England – likely to make up a large portion of the Lions squad – comfortably beat New Zealand 49-31 in their most recent meeting in 2024.<\/p>\n
“People are starting to realise the context we are in. Even if we had lost, we were right up there,” Mitchell added.<\/p>\n
“New Zealand are in a really great position for the Lions series and heading in the right direction for the [2027] World Cup. We are also evolving [as a team].”<\/p>\n
Blowing away every team comfortably or being pushed to the limit to win a Test – which would England prefer?<\/p>\n
“This is what living feels like,” Jones declared.<\/p>\n
Games in October against Toronto and Ottawa, with the series perfectly poised at 1-1, should give them those feelings again.<\/p>\n
This was only the third game of the season for Mitchell’s players, but being pushed all the way is something that he and his side are loving and embracing.<\/p>\n
Despite all that, an undefeated run spanning four years has been extended further.<\/p>\n
If only just.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand have beaten England in five World Cup finals and were once the undisputed number one team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":783677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-783676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-gb","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783676","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=783676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}