Black Ferns’ Bunting: ‘You feel like you sort of let your country down’

Black Ferns Director of Performance Allan Bunting was visibly gutted after Friday’s 34-19 loss to Canada in the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup semi-finals, which has brought the team’s esteemed eight-year reign as champions to an end.

New Zealand have won six of the last seven Women’s Rugby World Cups, with England claiming the one other crown in 2014. While the Black Ferns reclaimed their throne at the 2017 edition in Ireland, another side will stand at the top of the rugby world in just eight days.

Canada shot out of the blocks at Bristol’s Ashton Gate, scoring three tries in 23 minutes as they blitzed the defending champions during the first term. Tanya Kalounivale struck back for the Black Ferns in the 25^th minute, before the Maple Leafs regained the match’s momentum.

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Goal-kicking lock Sophie de Goede and captain Alex Tessier scored a try each on either side of the half-time interval. New Zealand fought gave it everything right up until the very end, but it wasn’t to be – they’ll face either England or France in the third-place playoff.

“Pretty gutted. Our ladies and our coaching staff and management, there’s a lot of work and a lot on our shoulders. You feel like you sort of let your country down and your family, and obviously you really feel for the group,” Bunting told RugbyPass.

“We get another week to go now but you put so much time and effort into this, but having said that, congratulations to Kevin and the Canadian women. They were pretty accurate today.

“We’ve actually started quite well throughout the year,” he reflected later on.

“We started quite slow today and we got stuck playing quite a bit in our own half, didn’t we? When you make errors in our own half and give the ball over to Canada, they were really accurate and they scored too many points there really.

“Our ladies jumped in there and tried their best to climb back and gave it everything, so you can’t fault that.”

Tessier scored inside the first three minutes of the second term, with de Goede’s successful shot at the post giving the Canadians a commanding 31-7 lead. It took the New Zealanders another 10 minutes to hit back, but they quickly showed the match was far from done.

Liana Mikaele-Tu’u and Braxton Sorensen-McGee scored a try each in quick succession. With the Black Ferns trailing by just 12 with 16 minutes left, there seemed to be genuine belief amongst the New Zealand players and their supporters of an all-time comeback.

New Zealand had their chances late, with halfback Risi Pouri-Lane coming close to scoring what would’ve been a decisive five-pointer, but it wasn’t to be in the end. The Black Ferns players and staff were understandably gutted after full-time, but Bunting remains proud of the group.

“I can’t fault the ladies’ efforts. They put everything in there, there’s nothing left out there. I’m so massively proud,” Bunting said.

“That’s Black Ferns rugby and they certainly gave it everything.”

In the second semi-final, England are hoping to record their 62^nd win in 63 Tests when they take on France at Bristol’s Ashton Gate. France lost by a single point to England earlier this year during the Women’s Six Nations.