England Red Roses v Black Ferns 2

[Stargazer]

England

Starters
15 Ellie Kildunne, 14. Lydia Thompson, 13. Holly Aitchison, 12. Helena Rowland, 11. Abigail Dow, 10. Zoe Harrison, 9. Leanne Infante, 1. Vickii Cornborough, 2. Amy Cokayne, 3. Sarah Bern, 4. Zoe Aldcroft, 5. Abbie Ward, 6. Alex Matthews, 7. Marlie Packer, 8. Poppy Cleall (c).

Finishers
16 Lark Davies, 17. Hannah Botterman, 18. Maud Muir, 19. Harriet Millar-Mills, 20. Sarah Hunter, 21. Claudia MacDonald, 22. Lagi Tuima, 23. Sarah McKenna.

Media release: https://www.englandrugby.com/news/article/autumn-international-rugby-red-roses-squad-to-play-black-ferns-in-northampton

[sparky]

Is Chelsea Alley out injured?

[Bovidae]

Missing other experienced players like Blackwell too. I don't think I've seen Robins-Reti play at fullback, she's on the wing for Waikato.

[Yeetyaah]

Early gang. Ladies playing better so far. England just in for their first try.

[Yeetyaah]

Ludacris call. Cockedge yellowed for a "deliberate knock down" as her hand touched the ball in the tackle process, eyes on the player not the ball. So stupid.

[MiketheSnow]

Could get ugly

[sparky]

21-0 to England after 23 minutes. AB down to 14. Brooker's knee injury looks bad.

[Yeetyaah]

Eh this ref is a little bit shit

[sparky]

England score a 4th try. One way traffic.

[sparky]

England 33 New Zealand 0. Brutal.

[Yeetyaah]

Woodman blatantly tackled off the ball there.

[Yeetyaah]

Maliepo is quite the player eh

[Yeetyaah]

Roses player was offside ffs. What is this ref. Black Ferns are getting dominated don't get me wrong but they're up against the ref here.

[Yeetyaah]

Ref not stopping play when downed players get in the way. Player safety from World Rugby 👌👌👌👌👌

[sparky]

Final score. England 56 New Zealand 15.

[Billy Tell]

That is 2 pastings. From the bit I saw England looked very impressive and nz a bit clueless.

[sparky]

England looked professional and very organised. NZ looked amateur and like they are had just met.

[Machpants]

@sparky said in England Red Roses v Black Ferns 2:

England looked professional and very organised. NZ looked amateur and like they are had just met.

Which is exactly the case. Like 7s we've carried on like we did in the past and other teams went pro and changed their org well before us. SR will help, but that's too late for this world cup cycle.

But the 7s has shown we can come back, as long as the investment is there.

[nzzp]

@billy-tell said in England Red Roses v Black Ferns 2:

That is 2 pastings. From the bit I saw England looked very impressive and nz a bit clueless.

professionalism makes a difference. Critical to invest in our players if we're serious about competing long term

[Bovidae]

NZ needs to find a competitive forward pack in the next 12 months. For 2 weeks in a row they've been outmuscled up front and can't stop the lineout drive. I really question the decision of not competing in those 5 m lineouts. Some of the young players (e.g., Mikaele-Tu'u, Leti-I’iga, Maliepo and Robins-Reti) stood up but without a forward platform the rockstar backs aren't in the game enough.

I really hope that Bayler gets a start in one of the tests against France. Cocksedge was really poor again and seemed too involved in niggle.