Tears spilled from Jodie Cunningham’s two black eyes as she reflected on England’s heartbreaking exit from the Women’s Rugby League World Cup and the changes required to continue to bridge the dwindling gap to the sport’s southern-hemisphere giants.
A crowd of over 7,000 in York watched New Zealand’s blend of power and professionalism prove just too much for Cunningham’s side, who slipped to a 20-6 defeat that extended an unbroken sequence of World Cup defeats to the Kiwi Ferns stretching back to the tournament’s inauguration in 2000.
