Rugby World Cup final: Captain Sarah Hunter says England are 'hurting' after agonising defeat

England person won 2 of the 9 womens' Rugby World Cup staged, the 1994 and 2014 editions

England skipper Sarah Hunter says that Rugby World Cup last decision by New Zealand cannot diminish the interaction of the Red Roses connected their sport.

"One effect doesn't specify the squad that we are, the radical that we are," said Hunter.

"Hopefully backmost location we person inspired the adjacent procreation and fixed them thing to beryllium arrogant of."

The defeat, successful which England were hampered by an 18th-minute reddish paper for helping Lydia Thompson, ended a tally of 30 successive victories for England.

That streak had made the Red Roses pre-tournament favourites, but New Zealand, who mislaid heavy successful some Tests against England past autumn, were inspired connected location soil.

"Sport is cruel, athletics doesn't extremity the mode you privation it to and unluckily that was america tonight," added Hunter.

"Credit to New Zealand, they kept coming and recovered a way. They are deserved champions.

"We tin beryllium proud. We volition look backmost and we didn't permission immoderate chromatic unturned and that is what we wanted to bash careless of the result.

"We near everything connected the pitch. It volition instrumentality time, we are hurting, but we volition enactment unneurotic and get done that wounded together."

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'Players gave perfectly everything' - Middleton

When asked however arrogant helium was of his team, caput manager Simon Middleton said: "That's the overwhelming feeling. How arrogant I americium and we are of the players. They gave perfectly everything. Not conscionable contiguous but for 50, 51 days.

"They've fixed thing but their implicit champion each azygous day."

On the reddish card, helium added: "It didn't help. It's pugnacious having 14 players for that long. We enactment them nether a batch of pressure, they enactment america nether a batch of pressure."

England had an accidental from a line-out to snatch triumph successful the last minutes but could not instrumentality it.

"We took it close down to the wire. It could person gone either mode astatine the end. Overall, I'm conscionable truthful arrogant of the players. They couldn't person fixed more.

"Twists hap successful a crippled and you woody with them. It's portion of the crippled and we dealt with it."

Middleton said successful the build-up to the tourney thing little than a triumph would beryllium a disappointment.

"In presumption of our goals, it is," helium added. "Talk to immoderate of the players and they'll accidental precisely the same.

"But we won connected monolithic fronts. We wanted to permission these shores a amended squad than we came. We did 100%. We've mislaid contiguous but won massively implicit the past 51 days."

'We person immoderate planetary superstars coming through'

New Zealand caput manager Wayne Smith, who was an adjunct manager for the All Blacks men's World Cup-winning sides successful 2011 and 2015, said helium had "never been much arrogant of a team."

"We conscionable wanted to spell retired and play and beryllium existent to our DNA," helium added.

"I americium not going to enactment progressive but I volition beryllium pursuing these women for the remainder of their careers. It is not conscionable the 23 today, we person immoderate planetary superstars coming through.

"I conscionable deliberation the future's great. I americium going to beryllium pursuing them but from a antithetic position."

Black Ferns skipper Ruahei Demant praised the location support, saying: "None of america truly expected this. To locomotion retired of the passageway and you can't adjacent deliberation due to the fact that the assemblage is truthful loud, I ne'er thought we would get that. Part of our program was to animate the federation and I deliberation we person done that."