Joanah Ngan-Woo of New Zealand steals the ball from England during a lineout in the final seconds of the 2022 Rugby World Cup final. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Women's rugby takes a step forward this weekend with the introduction of a new global competition.
The WXV 1 competition kicks off in Wellington with the top six teams in the world competing over the next three weeks.
For the Black Ferns it's a chance to take on England again after they pipped them for the World Cup less than 12 months ago.
The excitement of that game might not be repeated here but another healthy battle looms for the Black Ferns.
They beat France by one point in last year's World Cup semi-final and then scored that dramatic victory over England in the final.
England captain Marlie Packer, scored one of their five tries in that title game, but ended up on the losing side.
She says revenge is not the motivating factor for them.
"A lot has changed from last year, we've got new coaching staff and a new squad here and so it's just about coming here and putting on a competitive performance and seeing where we're at and hopefully the result looks after itself," Packer told RNZ.
England captain Marlie Packer lifts the Six Nations trophy Photo: PHOTOSPORT
It's a similar situation for the Black Ferns who have retained many of their World Cup winning side, but have a few new faces also.
Co-captain Kennedy Simon says they've also moved their game on from last season.
"We're not going to do what we did last year, we just keep getting better," Simon said.
"The depth is really good, we compete in numbers, we compete in collisions, we compete everywhere on the field and so to go out there and put it against someone else that we don't see as our friend will be really good."
England are now coached by former All Black mentor John Mitchell.
He's not expected to deviate too much from their forward dominated game, however Black Ferns coach Alan Bunting feels they will have tinkered with a few things.
"We've seen their game change a little bit over the Six Nations and with new coach John Mitchell coming in we'll see some changes," Bunting said.
"We obviously know the foundations of their game and they'll always have that, but we'll see a few changes."
Krystal Murray of New Zealand Black Ferns in action against France in the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
New Zealand's opening game this weekend is against France.
The French captain is Manae Feleu, who grew up in the French territory of Wallis and Fortuna in the Pacific and attended high school in New Zealand.
Feleu says she's learnt a lot about the game from her time in New Zealand and playing against the Ferns.
However the New Zealanders unpredictability is a challenge.
"You don't really know what they're going to do next, every time they surprise us with different things, Feleu said.
"They never really have a set strategy so it's really interesting playing against the Black Ferns."
The series opens with England playing Australia, Canada play Wales and New Zealand against France.
The New Zealand-England game is the last game of the competition in Auckland on November 4th.
The WXV 2 and 3 tournaments are currently being played in South Africa and Dubai respectively.
