{"id":437848,"date":"2025-09-20T05:48:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T05:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/437848\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T05:48:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T05:48:18","slug":"womens-rugby-world-cup-fairytale-canada-deliver-seismic-semi-final-win-over-new-zealand-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/437848\/","title":{"rendered":"Women’s Rugby World Cup: ‘Fairytale’ Canada deliver ‘seismic’ semi-final win over New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Six-time world champions New Zealand were undefeated in the Women’s Rugby World Cup for 11 years – a winning streak that spanned 4,063 days.<\/b><\/p>\n

None of the matchday 23 in Bristol on Friday had lost a World Cup game.<\/p>\n

They had not lost a knockout game in the competition since 1991.<\/p>\n

They had only lost twice in 42 World Cup games.<\/p>\n

Their record now reads: Played 43, lost three.<\/p>\n

Canada, who had to set up a \u00a3530,000 (C$1m) fundraising drive – titled Mission: Win Rugby World Cup – to help them reach the tournament, delivered an incredible semi-final performance in Bristol to end New Zealand’s bid for a third straight title<\/a>. <\/p>\n

A sensational first-half performance, including three tries in the opening 25 minutes, saw the number two ranked side in the world gain control of the game right from the opening whistle.<\/p>\n

When lock Sophie de Goede knocked over a conversion for her own try after striding clear, the half-time scoreline read 24-7.<\/p>\n

A response was always expected by the back-to-back world champions, but Canada cleverly saw out the game to set up a final against France or England at Twickenham next Saturday.<\/p>\n

“You see how well-resourced some nations are, and then you have fairytales,” former England captain Katy Daley-Mclean told BBC Two. “Canada are a fairytale.<\/p>\n

“You don’t beat New Zealand in World Cups. That was a statement of intent for whoever they play next week.<\/p>\n

“They were outstanding. They dismantled New Zealand, they were powerful and brave and absolutely nailed their tactics.”<\/p>\n

New Zealand World Cup winner Ruby Tui added: “It was tectonic, it was seismic. There was an earthquake here at Ashton Gate.<\/p>\n

“They’ve done something very special.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six-time world champions New Zealand were undefeated in the Women’s Rugby World Cup for 11 years – a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[748,393,4884,12,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-437848","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-northern-ireland","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115235055489409226","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437848","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=437848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}