There are two ways to approach playing a team that can claim to be the best Test rugby side in history.
You can curl up into a nice safe ball, or you can embrace the underdog status and try to flip the pressure. There are no prizes for guessing which option Wallaroos fullback Lori Cramer is taking before Australia’s clash with England in the World Cup quarter-finals.
“It is easy to look at stats and how they haven’t been beaten in so long, blah, blah,” Cramer said.
“But every game you play is closer to your first loss. It can’t last forever. Me personally, I like being underdogs. We are really embracing being underdogs, the pressure is all on them.”
A Wallaroos victory on Sunday afternoon in Waitakere Stadium in Auckland would qualify as one of rugby’s mightiest upsets, given England haven’t lost a Test match in a long, long time.
Their 75-0 win over South Africa, in the world No.1’s final pool match, was their 28th consecutive victory since 2019, extending their record for most Test wins – men’s and women’s – claimed in September. It passed the mark of 24 straight wins by New Zealand’s women’s team (2002-09) and the Cyprus men’s team (2008-14).
Grace Kemp and the Wallaroos celebrate victory over Wales.Credit:Getty
The official men’s tier one record is held by New Zealand and England (18) jointly.
The Red Roses have won their 28 Tests by an average scoreline of 46-8. They even thumped New Zealand last year twice, with scores of 56-15 and 43-12. The team that routinely gets close is the world No.4 French women’s team, but England have also beaten them eight straight times.
After becoming the world’s first full-time women’s program in 2019, England’s dominance is unsurprising, and a sign of where the bar is for professional women’s rugby.
The Wallaroos, by contrast, juggle work and rugby and are on per-diem payments at the World Cup. They are desperate for Rugby Australia to accelerate plans to contract players, as New Zealand now do.
England recorded their fourth consecutive Six Nations title in 2022.Credit:AP
Based on their improving form at the World Cup across the Tasman, in which they downed Scotland and Wales over the last two weekends and dominated New Zealand early in a first-up defeat, the world No.6 Wallaroos have shown how quickly they could become a top-tier team with more investment, and more time together in a full-time environment.
“Week by week we get better and better, and that’s what happens when we are together all the time right? We get to fully devote our time and all our concentration to footy,” Cramer said.
“You don’t need heaps of science to figure out the more time you get together, the better you get: on and off the field. We are pretty close anyway, through all the camps we have this year and over the years we have bonded well and stuck tight during COVID. But just being in a full-time environment, there is no doubt that the teams that gel well off the field, you can see that on the field. ”
Unlike England, the Wallaroos didn’t play a Test match in 2020 and 2021 and took on Fiji in May after a 956-day absence. That kicked off a seven-Test runway to the World Cup, but the COVID hangover led to a rocky start, with losses to Japan, Canada, the US and a heavy defeat to New Zealand in Auckland.
But a much-improved performance in Adelaide saw Australia push the Black Ferns in August, and in the opening World Cup game, the Wallaroos stunned the hosts early to lead 17-12 at half-time. They were run down in the second half but putting the Kiwis on the ropes with a fast start – along with gutsy wins over two Six Nations sides – provides a glimmer of hope for the quarter-final against England.
The Wallaroos have made the Rugby World Cup semi-finals once, in 2010.
“It’s a do or die match, and we are definitely up for it,” Cramer said. “I think we play better on this big stage and in these sort of games. I think it showed in the Black Ferns game at Eden Park, but it’s just a matter of being able to finish it off and execute for those full 80 minutes.
“A team like England, they’re a full 80-minute team. You have to grind it out the whole time and not drop off.
“We are totally capable. But it is a matter of putting the foot down when you have got them on the ropes, and making sure you finish the game out and adapting when momentum shifts.
“We have plenty of experience in this team, and we also have plenty of ticker. We are never going to roll over.”
