England return to winning ways after thrilling finish against New Zealand

England were spared a second successive draw after Zoe Harrison plundered an overtime try to break New Zealand’s hearts in a 26-19 victory at Allianz Stadium.

A week after their 39-Test winning streak came to an end with a 26-26 stalemate against Canada, the world champions needed Harrison’s opportunism in the 82nd minute to topple another of their great rivals.

It was cruel on the Black Ferns, who bravely attacked from close to their own line in a high-risk, high-reward strategy designed to turn a draw into a last-gasp triumph.

But it ultimately backfired as their intent to go wide with a long pass was read by Harrison, who picked off the intercept before converting to finish the afternoon with an 11-point haul that included three conversions.

A high-quality WXV Global Series clash played in front of a 59,871 crowd saw Ellie Kildunne and Jess Breach score second-half tries to establish a 19-12 lead, but New Zealand refused to be beaten.

England’s resilient defence was outstanding and showed all of the hallmarks of Shaun Edwards, who joined the coaching staff on a short-term basis last week.

The Red Roses signalled their defiance by facing the haka with the same formation the England men’s team used for their seismic upset of the All Blacks in the 2019 World Cup semi-finals, but by half-time they were regrouping after a bruising 40 minutes.

New Zealand won most of the collisions in attack and defence and entered the interval wondering how they had failed to score a third try having dominated the closing stages.

But they had to fight back from being breached in the 13th minute as Claudia Moloney-MacDonald propelled England ahead after finishing a passage of play that began with Maddie Feaunati charging downfield.

The Red Roses then had their moments with the ball, but New Zealand’s grip on the game was tightening with Breach forced to make a try-saving tackle on Ayesha Leti-I’iga.

Poor organisation led to England’s line being breached in the 26th minute when they cleared their line but left no one to patrol the backfield, enabling Amy du Plessis to kick into space, gather the ball and score.

And they were exposed again soon after as Hannah King raced through a gap in the fly-half channel following a line-out before feeding Leti-I’iga the scoring pass.

New Zealand should have struck once more but Maia Joseph misjudged a crossfield kick and early in the second half England were back in front when Kildunne burgled a clever try, taking the ball from the tackled Breach and ghosting clear on the outside.

Marlie Packer’s afternoon was ended by a dangerous tackle from Veisinia Mahutariki-Fakalelu that earned the Black Ferns prop a yellow card.

On came the Red Roses’ replacement front row and they had an immediate impact.

They bulldozed a New Zealand scrum and Breach took advantage of the position to run in her 58th Test try.

But the Black Ferns continued to fight and when Mererangi Paul touched down after a sustained spell of pressure, Braxton Sorensen-McGee converted to level the score, ushering in the grandstand finish that fell in England’s favour.