How do you beat England?

The Canadians got bloody close last week. We all (the players included) wanted to see what they could do off that last scrum but the call was made and the ball was kicked for touch. Bringing to an end England's 39 game winning streak.

It was the best game of international rugby played this year. Tight, so tight, the whole way through. Going try for try in the first 20 minutes. Relentless desperate defense in the last 20. They crashed over tight and found space out wide. Both teams had a chance to close it out but couldn't quite get there. They have just set up the Red Roses October tour to Canada in the best way possible. And most usefully for our purposes, given the Black Ferns a peak at the chinks in England's armour.

As far as I see it, there are three. Rucks, edge and experience.

The Canadian's exposed this over the weekend but lets be honest, so did the Aussies two weeks ago. The Wallaroos first try revealing of the experience that's currently missing from this Red Roses side. Winning the line out against the throw because England is down their preferred hooker, Amy Cokayne. Scoring their second by exposing the edge defense on a trick play. And causing headaches throughout the game at ruck time by winning 9 turnovers against the World Champs.

Canada doubled down on this. Aside from Cokayne, England is currently without their World Cup winning captain Zoe Aldcroft and their workhorse flanker Abbie Ward. These three are central figures to the might of the England forward pack. Their understudies are all still class but that's three heavy hitters and the loss of over 230 test matches worth of experience from the side.

I'd argue the bigger loss though is on the edge. I maintain that the outside back that scared me the most during the last World Cup was never Ellie Killdunne but Abby Dow. I've never seen Dow have a bad game and in her final tournament for England last year, she was in fine form.

Attack wise, she was a reliable metre eater. Dow will always be remembered for scoring THAT try against Canada in the 2022 World cup semi final. She finished the 2025 World Cup with 36 carries, 8 line breaks, 8 defenders beaten and 342 metres carried. But where the Red Roses miss her most is on defense. At the World Cup, Dow was tackling at an 83% completion rate, had 5 dominant tackles and won two turnovers.

The tries for Canada over the weekend might have crossed the paint closer to the sticks but all started with a break out wide. Charity Williams and Asia Hogan-Rochester made their presence known (I still think Asia scored that one) and Sophie de Goede joined the party. You know who else loves running a forward in that tram line? The Black Ferns. Last week, they unleashed Elinor-Plum King's pace on the edges. I expect more of the same this weekend.

Tempo looks good against England and the Black Ferns have been playing at an outrageous pace since Aupiki. Their average ruck speed across their last five matches has been 71% of rucks played in 3 seconds or less. They are able to do this because our team is seriously fit. I don't think I've ever seen a Black Ferns side in this good a shape. Particularly not with props playing that pace for 60 minutes plus.

To my mind, this is all thanks to Aupiki going full time this year. It upped the intensity for everyone when you had 120 plus players training full time. It's the reason why Elinor-Plum King has slotted in so seamlessly to the Black Fern side. For the first time you didn't have to make the Black Ferns to train like one.

This is my worry about the boys brigade meeting — sorry Rugby Summit — held yesterday in Wellington about the state of the men's domestic game. We have just seen Aupiki produce what it has always promised and now it feels at risk. Three years on from the latest report that told the boys two levels of professional domestic men's rugby was not sustainable they are having another meeting to talk about how two levels of professional domestic men's rugby is not sustainable.

Whatever decisions were made in that room, will have a direct impact on the shape of the women's competition. If they pivot away from the current Super Rugby format, where does that leave Aupiki? And what about it's feeder, the Farah Palmer Cup? Please don't tell me it's back to the drawing board now that we are finally gaining some traction. It would be so tragically women's rugby to be asked to dig up the pathways that were finally laid this year.

The only mention I have seen anywhere in coverage about the women's game is to mention it's cost. Can I please have a better analysis than that? Like a breakdown of how this costs are trending over time? What is contributing to the expense? The income? What the strategy is to work toward financial stability in our programmes? Framing it like this is just giving clickbait to the boys brigade who hate the women's game simply because women.

I know there was a big boost in sponsorship this year for the Black Ferns programme. 2Degrees has gone all in after already supporting Aupiki for as long as I can remember. There has been a shift in attitudes from franchises like my Hurricanes Poua and as much as I love our game, I know that this is ultimately a business decision. So what are these companies, these franchises, the NZR seeing in the numbers that is driving them to invest?

I will try to ask those questions but in the meantime, will be cheering on the return on that investment this weekend. When the Black Ferns play England and have they best shot at beating them in quite some time.

With you,
Alice