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Black Ferns co-captain warns France 'should be worried' ahead of semi-final

Ruahei Demant of New Zealand leads the haka at Rugby World Cup 2021 at Eden Park on October 08, 2022, in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Hannah Peters - World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images)

Black Ferns co-captain Ruahei Demant believes France “should be worried” ahead of their blockbuster World Cup semi-final at Eden Park on Saturday.

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The traditional rugby rivals met twice during New Zealand’s 2021 end-of-year tour to England and France, with the Black Ferns losing by emphatic margins on both occasions.

After losing their opening two matches of the tour to World No. 1 England, including a 41-point loss in Northampton, New Zealand were beaten in both Tests against France by at least 22-points.

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But under the guidance of legendary coach Wayne Smith, who was appointed as the new Black Ferns coach in April, there is clearly genuine belief amongst the squad that they win the World Cup.

While they got off to a disastrous start in their opener against the Wallaroos, they’ve gone on to score 209 points across four matches so far.

Co-captain Demant said the Black Ferns have “evolved” their mindset, and have revolutionised their threat with the ball-in-hand.

“We’re not like any other team either. We’ve evolved in so many ways but probably the biggest way that we’ve evolved is the mindset that we have when we have ball-in-hand,” Demant said this week.

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“It doesn’t matter what part of the field that we’re on, whether or not we’ve absorbed a lot of defence, we want to try and get five points out of any opportunity that we get.

“To do that, it takes courage. Not every team does that, it’s quite easy to get into quite a traditional mindset of you need territory, you need possession to a win a game of footy.

“The French style is a French style, so our coaches are looking at the game with fresh eyes, but that hunger and desire to make sure that you come full-time we’re going through to the Final, it’s still there.”

The Black Ferns have won all four of their World Cup games with dominant displays, but there’s no ignoring that France have beaten them by big margins before.

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Their first meeting last November ended with a 38-13 win to the hosts in Pau, before France backed up this win with a 29-7 victory a week later in Castres.

While Demant is confident that the Black Ferns can earnt their sport in the Final, the New Zealand pivot agreed that historically they are the “underdogs.”

“In terms of the results every time we’ve played France, yes we are the underdogs,” she said.

“But it’s a World Cup and it’s a semi-final, it’s anyone’s game. If you think if you were in the position that my team is in right now, how would you feel if this was your last game potentially?

“You can’t really compare the first training we had with (Wayne Smith) to now. Even after this morning’s training, the quality of some of the drills that we were doing, the accuracy that we were executing them at, it was probably we’ve ever been.

“That’s exactly what you want this week so you can’t compare where the team was at the start of the year to now.”

Canada will face England in the first semi-final on Saturday afternoon, which is a rematch of the 2014 Final in France.

New Zealand will then take the field against France in front of an Eden Park crowd in the second semi-final.

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EllenMoody 3 hours ago
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JWH 4 hours ago
'Matches between Les Bleus and the All Blacks are rarely for the faint-hearted.'

Do you hear yourself? Do you have any concept of world view? Have you tried looking into why people call Ireland ‘arrogant’? Obviously not.


We started calling you arrogant when you called our captain a ‘shit Richie McCaw’. In New Zealand. On our turf. Don’t think that kind of behaviour really calls for respect, does it.


NZ don’t really talk ourselves up, if anything the rugby does it for us. No kiwi goes in the media and says: ‘We are gonna win the RWC’. However, I have found many instance of IRISH media saying that the Irish should win, without a doubt. THAT is disrespectful.


The All Blacks have played good rugby, even some of the best rugby ever, at many points in history, but I don’t think you could find a single instance of one of those players, or the NZ media, saying that they should whitewash their opponents. Ever.


Now, onto your analysis. Ireland DID choke the QF. They beat the champions, they were ranked first coming into it, a lot of players at the peaks of their powers. Its hard to say that they didn’t choke. Obviously, their preparation was just not as good as NZ, and thats all there really is to it.


If Ireland had repsected that ABs team and that QF more, maybe they would’ve prepared properly for it and won. But they didn’t.


Maybe if Ireland had won their QF last RWC, they wouldn’t have to be in the same pool as SA and Scotland. I mean, its called a draw for a reason. NZ got third last RWC, so of course they should get a reasonable pool, and they were ranked pretty highly too. If you want to talk about easy pools, look no further than Pool 3 with England, Australia, Fiji, and Georgia I think?


Now, obviously you don’t remember how that QF ended, so I’ll go ahead and rectify that. Ireland reclaimed the ball off kickoff and marched for 20ish phases into the opposition half. Savea then won a turnover, but the referee refused to give it, so play went on. Finally, at the NZ 22, after not giving up a single penatly in 25 phases of hard defense, Sam Whitelock, the most capped All Black of all time, wins the game with an incredible steal.


Now, NZ players having a go at Ireland. Do you cry when you get hit after making the first swing? We all know Sexton is a prick on the field, its just the truth. And Ioane never backs down from a clash, so he thought he should humble a player who has never won an international knockout game who thought he was all that. Don’t really see the issue, its poetic justice really.

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