Ireland's women's rugby team stunned world champions New Zealand with a late 29-27 victory in Vancouver, moving up to sixth in the world rankings. The win follows their triumph over Australia earlier this month and highlights the team's dramatic progress under coach Scott Bemand.
Ireland 's Erin King celebrates scoring the late winning try with her team-mates during the victory over New Zealand in Vancouver. Photograph: Travis Prior/Inpho
Ireland have now opened up the possibility of winning successive games against different world number two teams, New Zealand on Sunday and Canada this weekend. Bemand pointed to an imperfect, but much more solid Irish set piece as well as the different units beginning to connect effectively. The arrival of new coaches over 12 months ago has added a different complexion to the back room team.
“We’ve invested on our pack. We wanted more from our set piece and against a strong New Zealand team it wasn’t all perfect but we were able to drive them, we were able to hold our own in the scrum and the kicking game that can really only come to life if you can defend high up the pitch. Canada are of a similar mindset to Ireland after beating France 46-24 in their opening game, which they see as one of the first steps towards meeting their ambition of being crowned world champions in Twickenham next year.“But not everything’s gonna go perfectly right now. It’d be great if it does. But we’re here to build. We’re here to get better and be prepared when we do get to that World Cup final.
Flanker Aoife Wafer who earned player of the match and, like King, scored twice, with nine caps is another of the relatively new faces and outstanding prospects punching through.
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