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Women’s Rugby World Cup: New Zealand power past Scotland, Australia and France also seal victories

Hosts New Zealand maintained their excellent form at the Women’s Rugby World Cup when they sealed a 57-0 bonus-point triumph over Scotland in Whangarei on Saturday.

The win was a momentous one as it means the Black Ferns go into the quarter-finals with an unbeaten record – after also beating Australia and Wales – and, as the scoreline suggests, they were full value for their win as they ran in nine tries against the Scots.

New Zealand started the match like a house on fire and raced into a 47-0 at half-time with Renee Holmes and Ayesha Leti-I’iga crossing for five-pointers inside the opening 10 minutes of the game.

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The home side continued to dominate as the half progressed and were rewarded with another from Sarah Hirini, after good work from Joanah Ngan-Woo in the build-up, before Liana Mikaele-Tu’u secured their bonus point when she crossed the whitewash in the 17th minute.

The Black Ferns did not take their foot off the pedal with Theresa Fitzpatrick and Renee Wickliffe (2) scoring further tries which gave them a comfortable 45-0 lead at half-time.

To their credit, Scotland came to the fore with a more competitive defensive effort after the interval and they only restricted New Zealand to two further five-pointers during that period.

Maia Roos dotted down in the 53rd minute but New Zealand were frustrated for the next 20 minutes before Holmes went over for her second try which meant she finished with with a 22-point haul as he also slotted six conversions.

Australia in to quarter-finals with narrow win over Wales

In the day’s early fixture, Australia booked their play-off spot courtesy of a hard-fought 13-7 victory over a spirited Wales outfit.

The sides exchanged tries in the first half, with Australia scrum-half Iliseva Batibasaga catching the defence napping at the ruck before back-row Sioned Harries responded prior to the break, in a physical affair where the Wallaroos had the edge at the breakdown.

Ioan Cunningham’s team could still qualify for the last eight as one of two best third-placed sides, depending on other results.

Seven-try France power past hapless Fiji

France also advanced to the knockout stages when they cruised to a deserved 44-0 win over Fiji in their Pool C encounter in Whangarei.

After suffering a narrow 13-7 defeat to England last weekend, Les Bleus rung the changes to their starting line-up with head coach Thomas Darracq retaining only three players in his starting line-up.

Despite all those alterations, France dominated for long periods and held a comfortable 20-0 lead at half-time courtesy of tries from Marine Menager, Melissande Llorens and Maelle Filopon, while Jessy Tremouliere succeeded with a penalty and a conversion.

France continued to dominate after the interval and Filopon, Emeline Gros, Emilie Boulard and Celia Domain scored their other tries to seal an easy victory.