Saturday’s Eden Park semifinal against the French will be two weeks shy of a year since the Black Ferns trudged off the field in Castres after another bruising tour defeat to France.
The five-time, reigning world champions were broken.
The 29-7 loss to Les Bleues was their fourth in a row to complete successive fortnights in which they lost heavily twice to both England and France last November.
The Black Ferns arrived in Europe after 27 months of no test rugby and faced two improving, professional teams at the top of their game.
The pandemic’s toll on the Black Ferns is hard to quantify. Hitting rock bottom on the tour, however, forced NZ Rugby to lift its backing for the following season and make the Black Ferns a fully fledged professional outfit for the first time.
Iconic coach Wayne Smith replaced Moore at short notice, admitting he didn’t know all the players, and it was difficult to see how they could recover to beat England or France in the scenario of a knockout match that’s been looming since they clashed nearly 12 months ago.
Well, here we are.
The Black Ferns believe they can win the World Cup after 10 successive wins since June and played their strongest line-up of Smith’s tenure in Saturday’s 55-3 quarterfinal win over Wales in Whangārei.
A semifinal against England or France, however, is what their whole season has been building towards.
Their physicality and scrum power might also be peaking at the right time after some early wobbles in the tournament, although they haven’t been tested by a team as strong as the English and French forwards.
Tighthead prop Amy Rule made her test debut on last year’s tour against their packs and has since played 11 tests.
“It’s probably been a year of build-up for this opportunity to have another crack at France,” Rule said.
“I’m excited. We’ve been working hard, they’ve been working hard, and it’s going to be a big battle. I can’t wait.
A world record crowd for women’s rugby of 34,235 attended the World Cup’s opening day at Eden Park, when the Black Ferns beat Australia 41-17, and more than 16,000 have attended each of their last two matches in Northland against Scotland and Wales.
Nine months later, the retiring 34-year-old halfback and two-time World Cup winner is more upbeat in the final weeks of her career.
“It’s a World Cup, right? It’s at home as well. We’ve got a bit of redemption there, no doubt,” she said.
“I don’t think any [team] can preview us because of the chaos we’re causing with our attack.
“We don’t have anything too structured. We just play the game and are expressing ourselves.
“I believe we can this World Cup.”
