Congratulations to the Black Ferns. They started this tournament as probably 3rd favourites and they've beaten the two teams seen as better than them on consecutive weekends to take out the title. Their triumph is made more impressive when you look back to the Black Ferns' tour of England and France last year where they were beaten soundly in all their games.
Heart goes out to England, whose 30 match winning streak came to an end at the worst possible time. The 30 game winning streak will feel like it was all for nothing for them right at this moment. Beating any Kiwi national rugby side in New Zealand is tough. Trying to do it while playing one short for an hour is extremely difficult and they nearly pulled off an incredible win.
By law, the ref was right to issue the red card and if you're a Kiwi, you'd understandably say the ref's call being the correct one is all that matters. As a rugby incident, I'm not convinced it's worthy of a team playing the rest of the match with 14 and this is where I have started to come around to the idea of teams being able to replace a player who has been sent off once 20 minutes of playing time has elapsed. A head clash with intent is known as a headbutt. A red card with the offending team down to 14 for the rest of the game is the only decision to be made. The red card for Lydia Thompson today, like Angus Ta'avao in July against Ireland and Charlie Ewels during the 6Nations also against Ireland is known as an accident. World Rugby's heart is definitely in the right place and they'll point to Portia Woodman missing the rest of the match due to concussion. As a rugby incident though, I'm yet to be convinced they've got the on field punishment right.
All that said, the Black Ferns were smart in the way they used the advantage the extra player had given them. They wanted to take England wide, play expansively and tire out an England side required to play with 14 for just over an hour. The try the Black Ferns scored from the kick off to the 2nd half embodied this. Most teams would have received the kick off, play a ruck or two then kick it out around or just over halfway and happily concede a lineout. The Black Ferns attacked and scored an excellent try to get the perfect start to the 2nd half.
You could say their positive approach with the ball has the fingerprints of Wayne Smith all over it and he had only been in charge of their team for about 5-6 months. Tonight also looks like Wayne Smith's last involvement in rugby as a coach and he has a wonderful coaching career, not all of it as head coach but this is a success where his fingerprints are all over what they've achieved. Sir Graham Henry has been part of the Black Ferns' set up as well and at the of 76, he has decided to retire from rugby for good.
