Mererangi Paul in the Black Ferns v Ireland Women WXV1 tournament in Canada in September 2024. Photo: Photosport / Paul Yates
The Black Ferns are hurting, but they are determined to prove the deserve their World Champions tag.
The New Zealanders suffered a shock 29-27 loss to Ireland in their opening game of the WXV1 tournament in Canada on Monday following their defeat to England a few weeks earlier.
Those defeats resulted in the Black Ferns slipping one place in the world rankings to No.3, with Canada up to No.2 behind England. Ireland rose one place to sixth.
Last year Ireland won the third tier WXV3 competition with wins over Kazakhstan and Colombia and Spain.
Eve Higgins of Ireland (left) and Amee Leigh Murphy Crowe of Ireland celebrate their win over the New Zealand Black Ferns. New Zealand Black Ferns v Ireland Women, 2024 WXV1 women’s rugby union match at BC Place, Vancouver, Canada on Sunday 29 September 2024. Photo: Photosport / Paul Yates
In this year's Six Nations they finished third, though they were well beaten by France and England and also lost to Italy.
Black Ferns assistant coach Steve Jackson said the review of the Ireland defeat was painful.
"It hurts. No-one means to go out there to lose. It does hurt and we feel like we've let the jersey down," Jackson said.
"We let ourselves down in some real critical areas of the game that we've been good at previously. The players and coaching group have had a really good look at themselves. We have to park it now and get the team up for a huge match this weekend.
"We've had a loss and this one hurts really bad, but we get the opportunity to rectify some things and go out there and take on England."
Loose forward Alana Bremner said the Black Ferns players were bitterly disappointed with their efforts.
"There's definitely a lot of hurt. Being a new week, today was the review day and today was all about owning it, putting our hands up and working out where we can be better."
Alana Bremner of New Zealand. New Zealand Black Ferns v Ireland Women, 2024 WXV1 women’s rugby union match at BC Place, Vancouver, Canada on Sunday 29 September 2024. Photo: Photosport / Paul Yates
However, she said the upset defeat to Ireland lit a fire under the Black Ferns group.
"A bit of hurt, a loss definitely fuels the fire even more and it's going to add even more fuel to what we're expecting from each other this weekend."
The Black Ferns do not have much time to dwell on the loss to Ireland, with a test against World No.1 and defending WXV1 champions England next Monday morning (NZT).
Jackson said they had identified the things that let them down against the Irish.
"Three key areas for us was the breakdown, failure to be able to exit well out of our redzone and our 22m entries. We had 14 line breaks but only executed three of them. Those were the major areas we need to improve.
"I don't think it was around the leadership that cost us that game. It was around those three areas. We had eight offensive penalties at the breakdown and that wasn't good enough. We carried high (into the tackle), we didn't get to our cleans. And we were pressured by Ireland's line speed."
Jackson was adamant the Black Ferns have the ability to address their shortcomings before Monday's match against England.
"Extremely confident. They weren't major things, just things we didn't do so well, like we didn't support our ball carrier. We know the areas and the individuals involved really understand what we did wrong."
"We believe in this group. This team believes in themselves that we can go out there and perform," Jackson said.
"The most important thing for us is to make sure we put in a good performance for the jersey. They (the players) feel like they've let the jersey down and they are hurting. But we need to bin that and learn from it and move forward and get excited about playing England."
While admitting they have not been up to standard, Bremner insisted the Black Ferns' confidence had not taken a hit.
"We know we haven't reached what we're capable off, that's the disappointing thing. We've been training well and we know something is coming, we just haven't quite been able to put that out," Bremner said.
"The belief is definitely still there. We're due a really good performance and we hope it comes this weekend."
Loose forward Liana Mikaele-Tu'u said there was plenty of motivation to tip over England in Langley.
"The rivalry between us and England is enough fuel on its own, aside from the recent loss. They are the a very good side, No.1 in the world at the moment. It's always a good challenge between us and them.
"We just want to put out a physical performance. Especially in the forwards after the game we've just had. We weren't good enough at the breakdown and set up a platform for the backs to play off, so that's on us and we can't let that happen again."