England women 6 New Zealand 20: more Rugby League World Cup semi-final disappointment

The defeat came two days after England’s men lost at the same stage to Samoa and leaves the wheelchair side to fly the flag when they face France in the final of that tournament on Friday.

England scored first and were only a couple of points adrift at the break, but two tries early in the second half sealed New Zealand’s ticket to Old Trafford.

The Kiwi Ferns were too good and realistically they and Australia are still some way ahead of England – who were beaten 52-4 by New Zealand – in a 2017 semi-final, thanks largely to the professional NRLW competition.

But England are making progress and can hold their heads high after a positive tournament on and off the field.

Women’s Super League has come a long way since its first season, in 2018 and a near full house of 7,139 at York’s LNER Community Stadium for the semi-final double-header was evidence of the potential in the female game.

England had a fine tournament and players including Leeds Rhinos centre Fran Goldthorp - who scored their lone try - have underlined their star quality, but a couple of outstanding players made a big difference for New Zealand.

Right-centre Mele Hufanga and Amber Hall, who was alongside her in the second-row, proved a real handful and it might have been a different story if they had been on the other side.

England made the perfect start, but couldn’t maintain it and the final tally of four tries to one was a fair reflection, though England did well not to conceded over the last 28 minutes.

After five, Georgia Roche’s kick found touch via a defender and set up field position for the stand-off to send Leeds teammate Goldthorpe slicing through for a quality try which Tara-Jane Stanley converted from the right touchline.

Clearly rattled, the Kiwi Ferns made three errors in the first 10 minutes, but a knock on by Amy Hardcastle on the first tackle near their line broke England’s momentum and New Zealand were on the front foot for the rest of the half and most of the remainder of the game.

They scored on 16 when Hall swatted off Hardcastle and sent Hufanga over.

Hall’s strong run set up Raecene McGregor to squeeze over from acting-half after 29 minutes, following successive penalties and a set restart.

Neither try was converted and at 8-6 down, England were still; well in the game, but two tries in 12 minutes after the interval dashed their hopes.

Strong-running by Hufanga paved the way for both, scored by Otesa Pule and Brianna Clark. Successive conversions from Apii Nicholls left England 14 points adrift.

Hardcastle held up Krystal over England’s line and the hosts had a couple of spells of pressure, but couldn’t break through a well-organised New Zrealand defence.

Australia cruised into the final with an 82-0 thrashing of Papua New Guinea in Monday’s first semi-final.

The Jillaroos led 40-0 at half-time and ran in 15 tries, with Emma Toegato, Isabelle Kelly and Shenae Ciesiolka each scoring a hat-trick.

England: Goldthorp, Beevers, Stanley, Hardcastle, Burke, Roche, Winfield-Hill, Hoyle, Jones, Wood, Molyneux, Rudge, Cunningham. Subs Bennett, Dodd, Field, Whitfield.

New Zealand: Nicholls, Vaha’akolo, Hufanga, P Mcgregor, Bartlett, R McGregor, Clark, Rota, Nu’uausala, Murdoch-Masila, Hall, Hale. Subs Maynard, Hill-Moana, Pule, Scanlan.

Referee: Kasey Badger.

Attendance: 7,139.