New Zealand 42-26 France: Black Ferns prove too strong to wrap up Women's Rugby World Cup third place
New Zealand's Black Ferns wrapped up third place at the Women's Rugby World Cup by seeing off France at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham; New Zealand, defending champions from 2022 and 2017, were knocked out by Canada in the semi-finals; France were knocked out by hosts England
Saturday 27 September 2025 14:47, UK
New Zealand won the Bronze Final at the Women's Rugby World Cup on Saturday, surviving a late French surge to triumph 42-26 in front of more than 50,000 fans in the curtain-raiser to the final between England and Canada.
It was, however, a bittersweet success for New Zealand, the defending champions and six-time winners who were surprisingly beaten by Canada in the semi-finals.
France opened the scoring through Pauline Bourdon Sansus, but it was almost all one-way traffic in the opposite direction after that as superbly-crafted tries by Ruahei Demant, Silvia Brunt, Renee Holmes and Laura Bayfield put the Black Ferns 26-7 ahead at the break.
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Their 18-year-old winger Braxton Sorensen-McGee stretched that with two tries early in the second half, before France hit back with three tries in 10 minutes by Lea Champon, Gaby Vernier and Emilie Boulard to give New Zealand a slighlty nervy finale.
With those two tries, teenage sensation Sorensen-McGee - the tournament's leading try scorer - produced her 10th and 11th touch downs of England 2025.
