- England 56-15 New Zealand
- Red Roses secure back-to-back victories over Black Ferns
A lot can happen in four years. A brand new competition can offer rugby players around England the opportunity to play at an elite level week after week. Twenty‑nine of them can quit their day job and focus entirely on their sport. A single team, still the only fully professional side in the world, can transform themselves into the most dominant outfit on the planet.
That is the condensed story of England’s Red Roses. Beaten 41-32 in the 2017 World Cup final by New Zealand, they have now put 99 points on the current champions across two one-sided contests. The latest result, a battering at Franklin’s Gardens, underlined a seismic shift in the global power balance.
