New Zealand coach Allan Bunting credited Canada’s accuracy and the indiscipline of the back-to-back defending champion Black Ferns for their shock semi-final exit from the Women’s Rugby World Cup in Bristol on Friday.
The six-times winners, who had not been beaten at the World Cup since a defeat by Ireland in the pool stage in 2014, lost 34-19 to the Canadians to miss out on a place in next weekend’s final at Twickenham.
“We’re gutted, gutted for the ladies, for our families and everyone who came over to support, and all Aotearoa back at home,” said Bunting.
“All I can say is our ladies didn’t leave anything out there, they gave their absolute best. Canada were accurate. We weren’t, and that’s the difference.”
The Canadians took an early grip on the game at Ashton Gate, racing to a 12-0 lead by the 10th minute through tries from Justine Pelletier and Asia Hogan-Rochester. By the third minute of the second half Canada held a 24-point advantage.
That proved to be an unassailable lead with the Black Ferns falling short despite late tries by Liana Mikaele-Tu’u and Braxton Sorensen-McGee that reduced the deficit.
“They were accurate, and too many errors, penalties and just our discipline was probably the real difference,” Bunting said.
“[There were] massive areas we went really well in and obviously our ladies are going to play, aren’t they? Sometimes it’s not going to be our day and unfortunately that was today. So probably just too many errors.
“We got stuck down in our own half, and when you give them ball in our own half, they’re really accurate down there and they score points.”
Black Ferns co-captain Kennedy Tukuafu credited Canada’s fast start as the foundation of their victory.
“Credit to Canada. They came out hissing in those 20 minutes and we just left it a little too late,” she said.
“Our discipline probably didn’t help us out much either, and, yeah, we just didn’t hold on to the ball long enough to be able to put points on.”
