Take Five: The big talking points from the Black Ferns’ win and upcoming Rugby World Cup quarterfinals

Paul Cully is a Stuff sports reporter.

ANALYSIS: It’s business time for the Black Ferns.

The big win against Scotland on Saturday booked a quarterfinal against Wales, and coach Wayne Smith now faces the hard selection calls after using the vast majority of his squad in the pool stages.

Here are five talking points after the weekend’s matches – and another impressive crowd in Whangārei.

Wales are the perfect opponents

There were promising signs from the all-Canterbury front row of Amy Rule, Georgia Ponsonby and Pip Love against the Scots. They are all terrific ball carriers and the scrum work against Scotland caught the eye, particularly towards the end of the first half. However, we all know what happened last week against Wales, when the Black Ferns were under set-piece pressure. That makes Wales the perfect opposition, because if the Black Ferns are to win this Rugby World Cup, they need to survive the scrum examination that is coming from France and England. The Welsh will show if the Black Ferns’ scrum is really on the right track.

Does Kennedy Simon come straight back in?

The co-captain hasn’t played yet due to injury, but coach Smith will surely give her every chance to play a big role for the rest of the tournament. Sarah Hirini is a terrific player and runs great support lines in that No 7 jersey, but Simon offers such punch with ball in hand that she would be too good to ignore. The word is she was close to playing last week, and she can give the Black Ferns another level with her strength with ball in hand.

The Theresa Fitzpatrick fan club is growing

Every RWC campaign needs that one player who may not necessarily attract the headlines but is the ‘glue’; the player who consistently makes good decision, makes other players around them look better and has a high underlying skill base. That player might be No 12 Theresa Fitzpatrick for the Black Ferns in 2022. There are plenty of good candidates for the midfield spots, but Fitzpatrick has not put a foot wrong over the past two games and it would be a big call to move her.

But how are England and France looking?

It’s likely the Black Ferns will have to beat both France and England to win the Rugby World Cup. From outside the camp that looks like the ‘hard’ part of the draw, and perhaps the route the Black Ferns hoped to avoid. However, elite athletes are a different breed. They live for the challenge and it may be that the Black Ferns who went on tour last year feel they have some unfinished business with France and England after those four big losses last November. That said, England and France both looked good at the weekend, and neither conceded a point against Fiji and South Africa, respectively. The semifinals are going to be huge.

A word for those heading home

There have been some lopsided scorelines in this Rugby World Cup – incidentally, that’s been a feature in the men’s Rugby World Cup for decades – but don’t let that fool you into thinking there hasn’t been progress made across the board. Japan, for example, were highly competitive for large parts of their loss to Italy on Sunday, and both South Africa and Fiji showed enough in the pool stages to suggest they can be big improvers in future tournaments. And don’t forget World Rugby is launching the three-tiered three-tier WXV competition next year, which should keep the momentum going. In some ways, the actual structure of the women’s test game is going to be better than the men’s game.