For half an hour, romance had trumped realism. As Australia romped to a 17-0 lead over New Zealand, with 19-year-old Bienne Terita scoring two tries in only her second Test, and the evergreen Sharni Williams cutting holes in midfield in her fourth World Cup, we began to wonder if maybe, just maybe, conventional wisdom could be suspended and give way to something magical.
Maybe a rag-tag group of amateurs could beat one of the sport’s powerhouses. Maybe money wasn’t the key ingredient to success. Maybe a World Cup title in one code could shift the paradigm in another.
