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Weight of expectation is a heavy burden to carry for the Red Roses

(Photo by Hagen Hopkins - World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images)

It must be a terribly uncomfortable thought gnawing away in the back of the minds of the Red Roses, as much as they try to suppress it, it will be there.

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The stomach-churning thought that their long-running winning streak will come to a grinding halt at the most unwanted time, on the turf at Eden Park this week.

It’s a mental hurdle even for neutrals to digest that this team could go without the crown jewel. Surely the unthinkable can’t happen, the winning run ending cruelly on 30 wins in the game England want most.

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But history has proven time and time again, the best team doesn’t always win the title. Tournament play allows for anomalies, curveballs and ‘unfair’ outcomes.

We’ve heard how England deserve this one, for leading the game in the right direction and for how hard they’ve all worked.

Are they now entitled to walk away with the World Cup? If so, hand it to them now. If it is to be decided on the rugby, let’s wait and see.

The Ferns want to play a brand of rugby that excites crowds, gets people interested and gets youngsters to pick up a rugby ball. Is that not taking the game forward, by inspiring the next generation?

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Where are the kids that want to roll a maul down and flop over the line like Amy Cokayne? There are many different ways to take the game forward and not all of them involve pay cheques.

No doubt England can play if they want to, they have the talent, but the fact that they have opted for conservative play for large stages of pool play perhaps shows they have missed an opportunity to become the rock stars of the World Cup.

It is the time to shine, take the stage and show the world what you’ve got, bring in the neutrals and turn them into rugby fans. In that respect, the Ferns have been the team to watch, not England.

The Red Roses, who supposedly have all the tools, have decided to leave most of them in the toolbox for the most part in the early stages of the competition.

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We’ve seen flashes of England playing expansive, when the game was out of reach for South Africa they turned it on and ran it out of their exit zone with a safe cushion of 40-points after half a dozen pushover tries.

The starts have been slow, with the rolling maul relied upon heavily to kickstart the motor into gear.

It took an age to get going against Fijiana, who themselves put three tries together in a game where England eventually flicked the switch to put 60 points on them in the second half.

Their toughest test in the pools against France was not a test defensively for the Roses. The French barely had the ball, forced to tackle themselves to a standstill with over 200 of them. England battered them with carry after carry.

The torrential rain against the Wallaroos didn’t allow for an attacking spectacle and England typically bulldozed their way to a healthy scoreline.

Abby Dow’s all-time try against Canada in the semi-final showed what we have been missing with one of the greatest length of the field tries ever.

England possess the ability to play any way they want to, we just haven’t seen as much ball movement as everyone would like.

On the other side, the Red Roses’ weaknesses have not been put under the blowtorch just yet. They have they have leaked tries on the fringes when teams have dared to go there, which is not often.

That will bring some optimism to the Black Ferns coaching staff, who possess the most potent outside backs at this tournament with Portia Woodman and Ruby Tui in blistering form.

The disastrous end of year tour couldn’t be further in the rear view mirror as super coaches Wayne Smith, Graham Henry and Mike Cron have transformed the team back into an attacking powerhouse.

It is the hosts who are playing with the most speed at this World Cup. It’s not so much the winning as it is rediscovering the way of rugby that is most enjoyable to play that has been a hallmark of the turnaround.

They want to cause chaos, live outside the box, create free form attack and take risk. They play with freedom and expression, the opposite of England who are playing to win, methodically restricted by choice and strategy.

Yet the Ferns do not carry the burden of expectations, despite hosting the World Cup and possessing a history of success at the tournament with five previous titles.

The weight of expectation is carried by England, fully professional for the longest, riding a long winning-streak, with the most complete squad and resources who “have to win”.

Picture this, 50,000 Kiwis surrounding the tournament favourites at Eden Park, the home of New Zealand Rugby, ignited into a frenzy by a stirring Black Ferns haka.

No doubt this is a double-edged sword that could derail the Ferns as well, over-awed and starstruck by the moment, but tell us this isn’t a recipe for a classic English bottle job.

Don’t the Roses have a history of losing to the Black Ferns in World Cup finals?

Three years of full professionalism will come down to just 80-minutes. The marathon becomes a sprint and while the Red Roses have been reliable over the long-haul, you do not want to race a Ferrari over a short distance.

If the Roses engine takes too long to fire up, it could be like watching a car crash in slow motion. Irresistible to watch, but painfully cruel as the winning streak comes to a dreadful end.

Tens of thousands of Kiwis will turn out to see this great England side in action, and they’ve been promised a treat. That they will beat the Ferns in their own backyard.

Let’s see it then. Come on England, come on.

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1 Comment
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Alec 738 days ago

And that is exactly what happened.

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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