Red Roses too strong for Black Fearns

By Mark Stevens
31/10/21

England Women's head coach Simon Middleton was full of praise for his side after they inflicted a record victory against world champions New Zealand at Sandy Park.

The Red Roses were in rampant form in Devon, scoring seven tries in their 43-12 success.

Second row Abbie Ward scored twice and full-back Ellie Kildunne once to give England a 17-0 half-time lead in front of a crowd of almost 10,000.

The Black Ferns' Alana Bremner crossed before Lark Davies, Holly Aitchison and Abby Dow scored to reaffirm England's dominance.

Player of the match Zoe Harrison scored the seventh in the game's last attack.

It was England's first win against the Black Ferns since 2017 and surpassed their previous record winning margin of 14 set in 2011.

Post-game, a delighted Middleton said: “I thought the team were fantastic today and it would be easy to highlight the forwards who have only worked with Louis Deacon (new forwards coach) for a few weeks, they were great for sure but our very young backline did some great things and showed the talent they have.

“The result gives us a good marker of where we’re at. Players and staff have worked hard to get the team to a position where we wanted to affect change. It would be remiss not to acknowledge the importance of that win. The crowd were brilliant, watching the players go round the ground and taking the plaudits at the end was brilliant.

“There’s still so much room for improvement, the players will be the first to say that but we’ll enjoy this moment. We’ll work hard this week and hopefully be able to put on another good show at Franklin’s Gardens next week.”

England: Tries - Ward (2), Kildunne, Davies, Aitchison, Dow, Harrison; Conversions - Harrison (4)

New Zealand: Tries - Bremner, Fluhler; Conversion - Cocksedge