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The Black Ferns scored eight tries in their win over Spain at the Rugby World Cup PHOTO: NZR\/ADAM JULIAN ACTION PRESS<\/p>\n
The Black Ferns have started their Rugby World Cup campaig in style with a 54-8 win over Spain at York Community Stadium.<\/p>\n
After an erratic start, the Black Ferns improved throughout the match; however, concerns will remain regarding the welfare of Kaipo Olsen-Baker and Ayesha Leti-I’iga, both of whom left the field due to injury.<\/p>\n
Leti-I’iga charged down Spain’s opening clearance from Amalia Argudo, with it taking three minutes before Spain even touched the ball. <\/p>\n
Jorja Miller then then started and finished a move for a try out wide and then just on the 16 minute mark it was Miller again on the other wing<\/p>\n
Liana Mikaele-Tu’u was officially acknowledged as Player of the Match. Her powerful runs from No. 8 often left Spain sprawling. When she barrelled over in the 24th minute, the score was 19-0.<\/p>\n
Spain showed determination, mauling strongly and tackling fiercely. Alba Capell (23) and Monica Castelo (22) led the individual tackle counts, with a dozen players making ten or more tackles.<\/p>\n
In the 34th minute, Amalia Argudo slotted a penalty from the 22-metre line. Argudo, who has overcome six collarbone surgeries over six years, is a Sevens player who won the Elite 1 championship with Stade Toulousain in 2021 and 2022.<\/p>\n
The Black Ferns emptied the bench in the second half, with Georgia Ponsonby, Chryss Viliko, Tanya Kalounivale, Kaipo Olsen-Baker, Risaleaana Pouri-Lane, and Ruahei Demant injected into the game.<\/p>\n
The Black Ferns’ approach became more aggressive, with Mikaele-Tu’u and Layla Sae combining for 36 carries and 215 metres gained. Sae made a strong run up the middle before Holmes wobbled a pass to Ayesha Leti-I’iga for the Black Ferns’ fifth try.<\/p>\n
Hooker Georgia Ponsonby then rumbled over from a 15-metre rolling maul for the sixth try. In the 53rd minute, Kaipo Olsen-Baker was carted off the field in significant distress. She missed the last Rugby World Cup due to injury.<\/p>\n
The Black Ferns will be pleased with the authority shown by their scrum, and Leti-I’iga\u2019s second try was a stroll. Another bullying run from Sae created the impetus for Renee Holmes to send Portia Woodman-Wickliffe clear for her 21st Rugby World Cup try.<\/p>\n
The Black Ferns struggled with discipline close to full-time, and after several determined pick-and-goes, replacement prop Ines Antolinez Fernandez managed to wriggle over for a historic try in her 23rd Test.<\/p>\n
The Black Ferns next game is against Japan Monday 1 September. <\/p>\n
Black Ferns 54<\/strong> (Jorja Miller 2, Ayesha Leti-I\u2019iga 2, Liana Mikaele-Tu\u2019u, Georgia Ponsonby, Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, Theresa Setefano tries; Renee Holmes 7 cons) Spain 8<\/strong> (Ines Antolinez Fernandez try; Amalia Argudo pen)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Black Ferns scored eight tries in their win over Spain at the Rugby World Cup PHOTO: NZR\/ADAM…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-371451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115087524900264266","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}