New Zealand, the world’s number one team, completed the perfect season with a 38-6 win over Ireland in Dublin on Sunday, making it five wins from five for the Black Ferns in 2016.

It took a power-packed second-half performance to secure the win though, as the Black Ferns only led 5-3 at half-time.

Prolific winger Portia Woodman raced in for a second-half hat-trick and Selica Winiata crossed twice as New Zealand exacted revenge for their loss to the Irish at Women’s Rugby World Cup 2014. Woodman and fellow try scorer Kelly Brazier will now switch to sevens to play in the opening round of the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series 2016-17 in Dubai on Thursday and Friday.

It was the Black Ferns’ third win on their European tour in just eight days following earlier victories over England (25-20) in London and Canada (20-10) in Dublin, and bodes well for their return to Ireland next August when they will try to reclaim the Women’s Rugby World Cup crown which they lost in France in 2014.

“That’s how we wanted to end our campaign, with a big win, and finish off the year nice and positive as we build towards the World Cup,” said Honey Hireme.

Head coach Glenn Moore added: “It’s been a really good year for us. We’ve played five test matches and there have been some games that we’ve played particularly well in and others where we’ve had to fight to win, which has been good.”

Over the course of the last eight days the Black Ferns have boosted their rating points by six-tenths of a point, moving them on to 93.43 points which is still nearly five and half points more than England.

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SEVEN UP FOR RESURGENT RED ROSES

England bounced back from the disappointment of narrowly losing to New Zealand at the Twickenham Stoop with a convincing 39-6 win over Canada to end their November series in style and reclaim second place in the rankings.

The Red Roses scored seven tries through Alex Matthews, Amy Cokayne, Danielle Waterman (pictured), Kay Wilson, Emily Scarratt, Lydia Thompson and Claire Allan as they repeated their success over Canada in the final of WRWC 2014 in front of a 12,000-strong crowd at Twickenham Stadium.

Waterman, whose first-half effort was arguably the pick of the bunch after a terrific run from inside her own 22, believes there is plenty more to come from the world champions in the nine months between now and next year's showpiece tournament in Dublin.

“There’s still a lot more left in the tank, we didn’t play as well as we can," she said. “It’s really important that we build towards next year, we’ve got better with each game we’ve played in this series.

“We let ourselves down in some elements against the Black Ferns, so that’s why it was important to put that loss to bed and come out and play how we did tonight. It was a fantastic response from the team, to play at the home of English rugby and get the scoreline that we did was amazing.”

BLEUES GO BACK-TO-BACK

Meanwhile, fourth-ranked France marginally improved their rating after a 2-0 series win against the USA. Les Bleues beat the Women’s Eagles 36-10 in Beziers last Tuesday before winning 31-6 in the second match in Montpellier on Friday.

A crowd of 6,450 turned up at the Alstrad Stadium to watch the Women’s Six Nations champions run in five tries while also keeping their own line intact against a physical American outfit.

Pauline Rayssac scored in the eighth minute and then Laure Delas converted her own try as France led 12-6 at the break. Audrey Forlani scored try number three shortly after the re-start after USA failed to clear their lines, before tries from Elodie Poublan and a second from Delas added gloss to the win.

Having achieved the double over the Women’s Eagles, France pick up 0.31 of a rating point to move on to 84.06 points, putting them three and a third points ahead of Ireland, whose defeat to the Black Ferns cost them just under a tenth. USA have been replaced in seventh place by Italy.