women
international women
Match-winner Zoe Harrison experienced all the emotions possible in the closing minutes of the Red Roses’ 26-19 victory over the Black Ferns.
The 28-year-old scored an interception on the final play to help England avoided a second draw in as many weeks, just moments after missing a penalty from 40 metres.
Immediately back into the defensive line, Harrison picked out Amy du Plessis’ pass wide to Braxton Sorensen-McGee to send the 59,871 supporters in west London into pandemonium.
The fly-half even managed to pull himself together and kick the conversion. It was truly an astonishing thing.
“Obviously the shot didn’t go the way I wanted it to. I felt like I had to make it up somehow,” Harrison said.
“The last part was a bit of a crap or crash. They had an overlap and I had to kind of stop it, so I just thought I had to get in their eye line and grab the ball – and scored.”
There was an element of déjà vu from seven days ago. A week ago, the Red Roses never looked at the posts in their 26-26 draw. This time, Harrison sent a shot on goal.
She missed out, but stayed in the competition long enough to redeem herself and get selected New Zealand the match-winning pass as England’s defense shone.
Strictly challenged in all three of his WXV Global Series games, Harrison needed a moment of individual brilliance to win the contest and return the Red Roses to winning ways, continuing their winning streak — which now stands at 41 games.
“I was just thinking ‘fair play to Zoe,'” said Meg Jones. “I said make your own luck and that was the moment. New Zealand obviously wanted to play and put on a show, which is amazing.
“We were able to take advantage because we put a lot of pressure on them in defense and that gave us a chance.
“Amazing Test match for us. I keep saying we’re playing the best teams now, so you’re just going to get absolutely everything thrown at you.”
England’s defense has been the subject of interest all week. The introduction of Shaun Edwards as a coaching consultant is the main reason for this.
John Mitchell said it was his team’s defense that ultimately won the world championship game. And Edwards’ representation is clearly already paying off.
“He doesn’t say a lot of words, but you listen when he does,” Jones said. “He praised us, but his approach was to put as much pressure on the Black Ferns as possible, to force them to play their game.
“So that’s the goal of the game – try to counter in the face, make them play early and it puts us in a better position. I feel like we did that really well.”
Next month, the Red Roses will play two test matches against Canada and once more USA The Women’s Eagles will conclude the 2026 WXV Global Series.
