New Zealand won the Bronze Final at the Women's Rugby World Cup, 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-times winners who were surprisingly beaten by Canada in the semi-finals.
France opened the scoring through Pauline Bourdon 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.
Their 18-year-old winger Braxton Sorensen-McGee stretched that with two tries early in the second half – taking her tournament tally to 11 – before France hit back with three tries in 10 minutes by Lea Champon, Gaby Vernier and Emilie Boulard to give New Zealand a nervy finale.
"That was for the wave of black in here and at home," Holmes said.
"I'm proud of this country, we did it girls and I’m so proud of them.
"It means everything, it shows a lot. And that's what this team means.
"Thank you to the 50,000 in the crowd."
England are odds-on favourites against Canada later on Saturday (4pm), when the final will be watched 82,000 fans, a huge world record for a women's rugby match.
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