Kelly Brazier. Photo: RNZ/Jamie Tahana
Black Ferns v Spain - Rugby World Cup pool match
Kick-off: 4:30am, Monday 25 August NZT
York Community Stadium, York
Live blog updates on RNZ
The Black Ferns, one of the most dominant teams in Rugby World Cup history, are opening their tournament with a team heavily reshuffled from their last match, hoping to "blow out some cobwebs" as they look to defend the championship.
"We're ready to go," Black Ferns co-captain Alana Bremner said. "It's been a wee while since we've played a test match, so you could expect a little bit of rust to come out. I think we're just looking to start the tournament well."
The team announced overnight for their opening game against Spain on Sunday (early Monday NZT) in the English city of York was loaded with shuffles and surprises. There have been 11 changes from the starting XV that played little more than a month ago in a warm-up against Australia.
Kelly Brazier, 35, who only returned to test rugby a few months ago, will lead the attack in what will be her first starting match in four years, having been named first five-eighth in her fourth World Cup.
"I'm quite a quiet person, so there was nothing too out there," Brazier said of her reaction. "I guess the initial thought on finding out is just pride and honour."
It's an incredible redemption arc from four years ago, when Brazier missed selection for the team that won the World Cup on home soil.
"At the time, I thought that was it for me in terms of fifteens," she said. "I know what it's like to not be here. So I guess that's been my whole thing going into this, just genuinely being in the moment."
Eighteen-year-old Braxton Sorenson-McGee, meanwhile, will move from fullback to the wing in what will be the rising star's first World Cup.
The front row has not escaped drastic shifts either, with hooker Vici-Rose Green starting alongside Awhina Tangen-Wainohu and Amy Rule. The co-captain, Alana Bremner, will partner with her sister and co-captain Chelsea at lock.
"We just work really well together naturally," Chelsea Bremner said it's a really fortunate position to be in. Not many people get to play with their sibling, let alone in the forward pack."
Layla Sae will be at blindside, while reigning New Zealand Rugby player of the year and vaunted prodigy Jorja Miller will keep the number 7; Liana Mikaele-Tu'u starts at 8.
The backline has changed almost entirely from the Black Ferns' last match, with halfback Maia Joseph starting alongside Brazier. Ayesha Leti-I'iga will be on the wing alongside Sorenson-McGee, while Amy du Plessi and Theresa Setefano will complete the midfield. Renee Holmes is the only one of the backs who started against Australia to return, as fullback.
That leaves plenty of firepower on the bench, among them Georgia Ponsonby, Ruahei Demant and Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, the try-scoring record-holder who has returned from retirement.
"It's an opportunity for our players to get out there," Allan Bunting, the Black Ferns' director of performance said. "All 32 players are going to be really important and we need to get them out on that field. It's a massive opportunity to go and start our World Cup and take the field for the first time."
Bunting, whose headline-grabbing motivational techniques have included a rousing haka to the team at Eden Park, or singing Dua Lipa's Levitating at a Manurewa intermediate school, has pushed a message of mindset in this city dotted with fortresses and battle sites.
"The growth of this group from three years ago... has been massive. If we want to do well at this World Cup we've got to be strong across the board, and that's got to start this week."
York Stadium. Photo: RNZ/Jamie Tahana
The odds for this game are stacked heavily in favour of New Zealand. Spain is ranked 13th in the world and the two teams have only met once before, in 1998, where the Black Ferns ran away 46 - 3. In their final warm up match against tournament-favourites England, they were trounced 97 - 7.
The Black Ferns, currently ranked third, enter the tournament a strong contender for their sixth World Cup, having clinched it from England in a thriller at Eden Park in 2022. They've had a wobbly three years since, but one can never rule out history, particularly when it comes to pinnacle tournaments:
From six appearances in a World Cup final, they have won six, and they believe they can make it seven.
"We're in a good place. We obviously had that draw with Canada," Brazier said, referring to the May test that ended in a last-minute stalemate. "But I think the learnings we got from that have been massive. Probably had we not lost it we may not have got those."
"The team's just been building well. I honestly think the team is just exactly where it needs to be."
But this time, home crowd advantage is on the Red Roses's side, as well as a rollicking track record. Of their past 59 games, England have won 57, including tonight's sold-out opener against the United States. That one loss was the last World Cup Final, which would surely build an appetite to avenge.
"England's going to have a lot of pressure on them with their whole country here," Bunting said. "For us, being away is less distraction. When you're in your own country you've got everybody wanting a piece of you, so it's a little bit easier for us, we can isolate away and focus on ourselves."
The fans are clearly there, a healthy sign of the massive growth of the women's game. Of more than 470,000 tickets, organisers have already sold in excess of 375,000. The final at London's Twickenham has already sold out, with a capacity of 82,000.
The last time England hosted the World Cup, in 2010, the final was held on an outfield around the corner from the main stadium at Twickenham. England were beaten by New Zealand 13 - 10. The top scorer for the whole tournament was a young debutante named Kelly Brazier.
"At the time it was a record 13,000 people. Now it's 82,000 people and that's just in the space of 15 years," she said.
"It's pretty surreal to be honest. Even for myself, growing up as a five-year-old picked on for playing rugby. Laughed at, being the only girl. To think where the game has come now it's pretty inspiring.
"To turn up on a Saturday at the Mount rugby fields in Tauranga and see fields full of girls, it just brings a smile to my face."
Yet on a grey Friday in the centre of York, a small and ancient city of wonky walls and cobblestone lanes that wrap around a towering cathedral, the suggestion of there being a World Cup in town was slightly muted. Aside from a few flags fluttering from lamp posts, much of the city seemed preoccupied with the Yorkshire horse races, as people stumbled along the stony streets with big hats and coat tails.
But at the 8000-seat York Community Stadium, a five-year-old complex situated in a megamall on the outskirts of town, the final measures were being put in place for what the York Press dubbed a 'bumper weekend'. Forklifts were buzzing about, the broadcast cables were being laid, and the fencing and bunting was going up two days out.
Earlier in the week, the teams were welcomed to the city with a ceremony and, aside from training, much of the team have been doing meet-and-greets with schools and clubs around Yorkshire.
Alana Bremner said the opening ceremony was incredible.
"The excitement in York has been pretty cool."
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