Red Roses cling on to unbeaten run against resurgent New Zealand

England's Red Roses secured a hard-fought 26-19 win over New Zealand's Black Ferns at Allianz Stadium, needing a dramatic late intercept try from Zoe Harrison to avoid a second successive slip against a major rival.

The match came just a week after Canada held England to a 26-26 draw at Sandy Park, ending a 39-game winning run that began under head coach John Mitchell in 2023 and included England's first Rugby World Cup title in 11 years.

Against New Zealand, the Black Ferns levelled the score at 19-19 with less than ten minutes remaining through a Braxton Sorensen-McGee conversion. In the final play of the match, with the clock already in overtime, Harrison intercepted a New Zealand pass attempted from deep in their own territory and ran in to score the winning try.

Harrison said after the match that a draw would not have been acceptable following the previous week's result against Canada, adding that beating New Zealand at home carried extra significance given England's 2022 World Cup final defeat to the same opponent.

New Zealand, unbeaten under new head coach Whitney Hansen before this game, led 12-7 at half-time and looked capable of ending England's long unbeaten run. Mitchell said his side were told at the break to take more risks in attack, which helped them turn the match around.

England were missing several key players for the fixture, including World Cup-winning captain Zoe Stratford. The game formed part of the new WXV Global Series, a competition running from 2026 to 2028 involving the world's top 12 teams, designed to build competitiveness ahead of the 2029 World Cup.

Red Roses captain Meg Jones said the standard of women's rugby continues to rise and that England aim to keep widening the gap over their rivals. England next travel to Canada in October to complete a three-match series against them, currently level at 1-1, having already faced the world's second- and third-ranked teams this campaign.