Canada v New Zealand will be one of the mouth-watering matches in the Women's Rugby World Cup 2017 pool stages next August and the Black Ferns edged an end-to-end physical battle on Wednesday to emerge 20-10 winners.

Both sides came into the match in Dublin on the back of victories over Ireland (48-7) and England (25-20) respectively last Saturday and as the top two nations in the World Rugby Women's Rankings they were eager to lay down a marker ahead of their Pool A encounter next year.

The Black Ferns opened the scoring in the 16th minute when World Rugby Women's Player of the Year 2015 Kendra Cocksedge sliced through the Canadian defence with ease and raced clear before spinning a pass out to Selica Winiata for the full-back to touch down.

Cocksedge, who scored twice in the win over England, failed to convert from out wide, but made no mistake with a penalty on the half hour to extend the Black Ferns' led to 8-0. The score would remain that way until half-time, albeit only after World Rugby Women's Player of the Year 2014 Magali Harvey (pictured) saw her kick come back off the posts after New Zealand second-row Charlene Gubb had been sent to the sin-bin.

Gubb had barely returned to the field when Canada pounced, their impressive second-row Latoya Blackwood anticipating the New Zealand attack perfectly to intercept and then unleash Harvey - playing only her second 15s test since WRWC 2014 - to run in from halfway to the delight of her team-mates.

New Zealand's response was swift, though, with replacement prop Aotearoa Mata'u powering over from close range, Cocksedge's conversion extending their advantage to 15-5 with 23 minutes to play. 

A pre-World Cup test

Each team then lost a player to the sin-bin in quick succession with replacement Brittany Waters making a quick return to the sidelines, followed by Black Ferns second-row Eloise Blackwell, and Canada quickly set up a tense finish when Laura Russell broke away from a driving maul and powered over the line. New Zealand, though, didn't panic and a slick backline move saw Renee Wickliffe make a break before finding Winiata for her second try of the match to make it 20-10 with 10 minutes remaining.

Canada did create a promising scoring opportunity with two minutes to go, but Olympic bronze medallist Karen Paquin couldn't hold on to a pass and New Zealand were able to clear their lines and see out the match to ensure their unbeaten record against Canada remained intact.

"We wanted to start with a bang when the whistle went and that is how we started," said New Zealand captain Fiao'o Fa'amausili. "We take big pride in the black jersey and we tell the girls to trust each other. We came in respecting that Canada is a good team, but we were confident we could pull off our Black Ferns rugby out there.

"I am just really proud of the girls. Canada is in our pool for the World Cup so this is a good test for us and I think we just need to keep building from now on."

Her Canadian counterpart Kelly Russell added: "We're not happy. We're disappointed with the way we came out and played. We didn't start playing our game until midway through the second half. The girls give it their all every minute of the game, we can't ask for more - we just have to be more switched on when we hit the pitch."

Canada will now head to Twickenham to tackle England in a repeat of the WRWC 2014 final on Saturday, while New Zealand will end their tour against WRWC 2017 hosts Ireland at UCD Bowl on Sunday.

France too strong for USA

Two others sides building towards Women's Rugby World Cup 2017 were in action on Tuesday with France producing a strong second-half performance to beat USA 36-10 at the Stade de la Méditerranée in Beziers.

Les Bleues, ranked fourth in the World Rugby Women's Rankings - three places above visitors USA, had only taken a narrow 17-10 advantage into half-time of the first of two tests between the nations this week, but crossed for three second-half tries through winger Romane Menager, centre Caroline Ladagnous and replacement Yanna Rivoalen.

France, who had lost their opening test of November 10-5 to England, hit the front as early as the fourth minute when hooker Agathe Sochat profited from a traditional weapon of their driving maul, but the USA Women's Eagles hit back almost immediately with captain Hope Rogers dotting down and Kimber Rozier's conversion making it 7-5.

Second-row Lenaig Corson made a break which led to a try for Olympian Ladaganous, but a penalty from Rozier tied things up at 10-10 on the half hour. France, though, would sneak ahead on the stroke of half-time when prop Annelle Dessayes found a way over under the posts.

The sides will meet again on Friday at the Altrad Stadium in Montpellier on Friday in their last outing of 2016.

Main photo credit: Inpho