England beat New Zealand in 2nd Test

England women beat New Zealand women 21-7 tonight down in Esher to take an unasailable 2-0 lead in the 3 test series, that's the first time England have beaten New Zealand in back-to-back tests, and to beat the World Champions with a largely experimental backline was very impressive.

The 3 tries to 1 final count looks good enough on paper, but England had 2 players sin-binned to New Zealand's 1, and when the Kiwis were down to 14 players at the end of the first half England slotted a penalty but failed to make the most of a long period of pressure in the NZ 22, although they lead at the break by 11-7 when New Zealand started the second half playing high tempo rugby they looked very dangerous. However, England stayed calm and eventually made the extra player count by going over for another unconverted try.

Despite England going down to 14 players on the 55 minute mark for killing the ball in the red zone, they had enough in the tank to withstand the concerted NZ pressure and eventually turned over ball which lead to a quick 22 breakaway and eventually another 3 points from a NZ breakdown infringement.

With England back up to full strength the killer blow was dealt out after 72 minutes with Fleetwood bagging the try, she finally went over after a couple of steps a bounce and a hand-off a Dalek would be proud of, and it's well worth a look if you get the chance.

England were 14 points up with less than 10 to go, and you would have thought the intensity level would have dropped a little, but NZ kept on running the ball and forced the pace right to the very end, it looked like NZ would bag a try at the death as the game went into the 84th minute and England had their second sin-binning for more of the same in the red zone, but after surviving multiple phases, penalties and a couple of try-line pile ups, England finally snaffled NZ ball at the breakdown and booted the ball into touch for glory.

On the whole the game was hampered by the weather which made kicking almost impossible and created a number of handling problems when the ball went wide quickly or via an attempted miss pass, but even so, both teams were a credit to the game and provided another very entertaining match.

The final Test is on Saturday at 2.00pm down at Esher, which will make it 3 Tests in 8 days, so just on the off chance you drop in Eliota, that's 3 Tests in 8 days; they're amateurs and women, so wind your neck in mate.

Well done and congratulations England.

Well played and good luck for Saturday New Zealand.

Very well played England. 2 out of 2 so far.

I expect England will win 3 out of 3 this weekend. NZ womens game has a few issues at the moment. The key thing for them will be can they get the game back up over the next 12 months.

The biggest problem for the ferns is a lack of game time. The 6 nations is starting to pay dividends for European sides. The Black ferns are in a situation where they play little rugby, outside of the provincial comp. They'll fade from the international scene if they can't get more games.

blackcanelion wrote:I expect England will win 3 out of 3 this weekend. NZ womens game has a few issues at the moment. The key thing for them will be can they get the game back up over the next 12 months.

The biggest problem for the ferns is a lack of game time. The 6 nations is starting to pay dividends for European sides. The Black ferns are in a situation where they play little rugby, outside of the provincial comp. They'll fade from the international scene if they can't get more games.

I think they said they'd played a coiuple of games this year and only had 2 days together before the first Test last Saturday, doesn't sound like the best preparation to me. It's a shame as the standard of rugby they play is very high, it looked like a good crowd at Esher too, so there's clearly an audience for it.

well played England, The Black ferns have only lost five games since 1990, two of those being in the last week.
PJH
I dont see why you tell eli to pull his neck in, the scenario he was complaining about at the World Cup was completely different,most noticeably by the fact that Manu samoa's opposition were getting more time between games than they were.In the womens current test series they both get the same time inbetween games.

nice report, I missed the world cup over here and regretted it. The Ladies play some entertaining rugby.

Well done England. Didnt see the game but feel as though I have thanks PJ

Good for our women to be put under a lot of pressure to have to come up with a way of winning the third. Only good things can come from that sort of experience.

Perhaps a new role for Henry? (or Mrs Henry maybe)

Mrs Henry coaches netball.

well done lezzers.

cabbagesandbrussels wrote:well done lezzers.

If I read that right - then that is an entirely homophobic comment (Latin homo not only means man but same - as in homogeneous)

No wonder theres so many dirty plates in my kitchen

I was lead to believe that the Black Fearns brought over a fairly weakend side. Many of their WC players have retired or taken a break from rugby.
Still, England fielded a fairly experimental team for the 2nd test and still won - well done England.

Cabbage - that is outrageous.

propdavid_london wrote:I was lead to believe that the Black Fearns brought over a fairly weakend side. Many of their WC players have retired or taken a break from rugby.
Still, England fielded a fairly experimental team for the 2nd test and still won - well done England.

Cabbage - that is outrageous.

Geez since the abs win it seems as though all the other nz rugbys are falling off.

The womens the 7s and even our netballers are all losing to english sides.

Geez whats happening?

8-8 draw in the final test at Esher.