Kiwi Ferns dominant in World Cup opener

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New Zealand Women v France Women

The New Zealand Kiwi Ferns were at their dominant best securing a 46-0 victory over a gallant France side at LNER Community Stadium in York this morning.

After a sluggish start which saw both sides shake off the cobwebs, it was the Kiwi Ferns that were able to settle quickest. It was an incredibly resilient opening 20 minutes by the French side which saw them repel the Kiwi Ferns several times. But, once the offloads started happening inside the red zone, there was little the French could do. A clever shift to the left-hand side saw the Kiwi Ferns open the French defence and it was Maddison Bartlett who crossed for the opening try after 23 minutes of play. 

It appeared that try shrugged off any rust that the Kiwi Ferns had brought with them to York this morning, and from there the floodgates were opening at a rapid pace. Five minutes later, a clever grubber kick from Dally M women's player of the year Raecene McGregor was expertly raked in by Apii Nicholls and the signs were ominous for the French side. Just four minutes after that effort, Amber Hall crossed off another gem of a pass from McGregor to put it down right under the posts and assert their dominance in this contest.

Despite the weight of possession against them in the final 15 minutes of the first half, France continued to hang in the contest. But, the French side missed a whopping 46 tackles and some of those misses proved to be extremely costly for the side appearing in just their second-ever World Cup. On the stroke of half-time, another clever blind-side raid saw Nita Maynard link up with her other half in Autumn Stephens-Daly who put Roxy Murdoch-Masila into a yawning gap to cross for the Kiwi Ferns. This made the score-line 20-0 at half-time.

The second stanza began just how the first ended for the French, unfortunately behind the try-line. The spine of Maynard, McGregor and Nicholls combined brilliantly down the right edge. It was then a simple draw and pass from the centre Shanice Parker to send winger Katelyn Vaha'akolo racing across the line down the right edge and the match had real potential to get away from the French in a big way. Eight minutes later, a cross kick from McGregor found her sister Page McGregor on the full and she was able to outmuscle her opposing centre to crash over and extend the margin out to 30 points.

Six minutes later, Vaha'akolo crossed for her second in identical fashion to her first as McGregor, Nicholls and Parker all combined to put the winger over for her second try of the second stanza of footy. Some brief resistance from France stopped the score-line advancing any further until the final few minutes of play. They went close to scoring just at the hour mark, but referee Ben Thaler ruled that the French player was held-up. The final five minutes saw the Kiwi Ferns cross for two outstanding tries. Murdoch-Masila crossed for her second try before Parker stole the show racing 95 meters to score a scinterlating individual effort to make the score 46-0.

This match showed how far the women's game has advanced in France, with coach Vincent Baloup calling it "the best game a French women's team ever played" Baloup said. While Kiwi Ferns coach Ricky Henry was full of praise for the French side in his post-match assessment "Bit of a slow start for us, but give credit to the French team who came out and put it on us." Henry said. Both sides are back in action on Monday morning (AEDT) in a double header, with France facing the back-to-back world champion Jillaroos at 6:30 am (AEDT) and the Kiwi Ferns taking on the Cook Islands at 4:00 am (AEDT).