Womens rugby world cup final 2017

[The Jones Boy]

I looked around and couldn't find a thread on this subject.

So... I watched the final last night live from Belfast and the two best teams of the tournament contested the final and at halftime it was anyones game.
England are so tough, they waltzed through their group stage and were systematically stronger than their opponents in the knock out stages; they are fearsomely strong in the set piece (the best in the world) and strong defensively across the park, however in the second half the Black ferns took to their running game and ran hard at the English women and carried to great effect. They starved England of possession in the second half and dominated proceedings to carry out a plan that England could not counter. In the second half they deprived England of the Lions share of possession.
It was a tough and exciting game and the standard was excellent.
Well done to the Black Ferns.
World Champions from a catchment of about 4 and a half thousand sheilas.

 

[Brigantine]

I only watched the highlights, but I was also surprised how high the standard was. Lightyears ahead of the Black Ferns vs Walleroos game I watched last year.

That last Black Ferns try from the cross-kick was classy.

 

[Brigantine]

According to the World Rugby Rankings, the Black Ferns (1st, 95.66 RP) are now better than the All Blacks (1st, 95.21 RP)

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

I said in the first half that if NZ didn't keep coughing up the ball, the English defence was too weak and would not stop them. Even first half NZ were just constantly moving forwards, their attack never faltered and the English defence was just WAAY too passive. Plus it was shocking how poorly positioned they were at times, getting stepped by a prop coming out of the ruck from a standing start is never acceptable and yet the English defenders were frequently not in position to make a solid tackle. 2nd half NZ just held onto the ball and that was that. I'd have ruled out one of the NZ tried as the ball clearly rolled forwards when she released it before regathering but otherwise England were just not aggressive or savvy enough. In attack them matched NZ but defence left a lot to be desired against a direct team.