It’s the nature of sport that things don’t always go your way. We’ve had an amazing tournament but unfortunately we lost the final 13-10 to New Zealand.
To be honest the result took a while to sink and it still hasn’t properly hit me. That was the toughest game of rugby we’ve played all tournament and we played some awesome rugby but in the end the result didn’t go our way.
New Zealand are a fantastic side and they played some brilliant rugby. They had more possession than us and they played a great, tactical game, but we played probably some of our best rugby of the tournament so it was a very evenly matched game.
Our defence was phenomenal. We kept them away from our try line so many times. One of the defining moments of the game was when our second row Jo McGilchrist chased down one of their wingers and made an incredible try-saving tackle. It really summed up the spirit we’ve had all tournament – we work hard and we never give up.
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Read more from Rachael here:
Click here to visit our Women’s Rugby World Cup mini-site
Rugby: Rachael Burford’s World Cup blog – part 5
Rugby: Rachael Burford’s World Cup blog – part 4
Rachael Burford’s Rugby World Cup blog (part 3)
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I have enjoyed the tournament so much and I’m sad now that it’s all over. It’s been a bit surreal playing in England as sometimes it hasn’t felt that real, but at the same time it’s been absolutely amazing. The way the RFU and RFUW have run this World Cup has been incredible. We’ve taken women’s rugby to another level and that’s what it’s all about. It’s about playing the best we can, promoting the sport and getting the recognition we deserve.
The final was just an incredible experience. The Twickenham Stoop was almost full and the crowd there was amazing. I’ve honestly never experienced anything like it. We couldn’t help thinking imagine if we had this for every Six Nations game we play! Hearing the crowd sing Swing Low Sweet Chariot before the Haka was unbelievable and it really got us fired up. You could tell that 95% of the people there were English and they were really behind us! We feel sad that we didn’t deliver the result for them. We thought we were the best and we prepared the best that we ever could so to have it taken away from us is really heart-breaking but at the same time we put in massive effort for 80 minutes so can’t be too hard on ourselves.
Afterwards I found it really hard to go see the crowd and my family because I felt that I’d let them down, but once I got the courage to go over and talk to them I felt so much better. As well as my friends and family, I had so many people coming up to me that I didn’t know asking to shake my hand and saying I’d done so much for the sport. That has made this tournament so worthwhile.
Now that it’s all over I’m going to enjoy some time off and then a holiday before I start work. It will be strange settling back into reality but that’s the nature of these things. I’ve enjoyed every minute of this World Cup and I can’t wait to get stuck into the RFUW Premiership when it kicks off in October. The World Cup may be over but rugby isn’t!
NikeWomen has been supporting the Women’s England Rugby team on their journey throughout the World Cup, www.nikewomen.com
Rachael Burford, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
