The Red Roses who were defending champs from winning the tournament 3 years ago in France, couldn’t retain the cup, but made New Zealand fight all the way to regain it.
The first half went to plan for England with the added help of a sin bin for Black Ferns Sarah Goss. This led to Lydia Thompson going over for England and a 17-10 lead at the break.
After the break, New Zealand stepped up a gear, and Toka Natua went over for her 2nd try of the final, but England managed to hold on to 25-24 lead with over half the game left.
New Zealand kept pouring forward with wave after wave of attack on the English defence, which led to Natua completing her hat-trick of tries and a flurry of others to seal the win and avenge England’s win over them 29-21 in the summer.
New Zealand have won the competition for a fifth time, with four of those wins coming over England.
