Rugby World Cup: Wales 12-56 New Zealand

In front of a sell-out crowd, Wales were defeated by New Zealand.

The defending world champion ran in 10 tries to Wales' two.

Sylvia Brunt also crossed twice, taking her tally to two.

Ffion Lewis and Sioned Harries scored in the first half for Wales who are second in Pool A behind Australia.

Wales are in a good position to make it to the knockout stages despite the result.

The two teams with the most points in each of the three pools will progress.

Bright start by Wales

Wales had a good start like they did against Scotland.

The 100 plus travelling supporters were delighted by their scrum dominance from the beginning.

Gwen Crabb carried well in her first outing of the tournament and, not that they needed it, were reminded of the threat of New Zealand full-back Ruby Tui who halted a promising attack with a well- timed intercept.

Wales tackled ferociously as the hosts grew into the game, and they successfully held up their first attempt at the try line.

The captain and player of the match kicked a penalty which Wales coughed up.

As the game approached its first quarter, Wales could not stop Bremner from crossing.

The Black Ferns were back on the attack from the restart, Demant broke the line before the ball went out to Woodman.

Two tries soon became three as the Black Ferns grew in confidence, Woodman carved her way through the defence before handing the ball to Bremner who passed to Brunt.

Wales gave Woodman far too much space as she shrugged off the tackles of Joyce and Powell to score her second goal.

Demant was successful with the conversion.

The Black Ferns took possession of the ball after Wales dropped their lineout.

Sioned Harries was just short of the line after picking up from number eight after Wales destroyed the Black Ferns scrum for the second time.

Wales scored a deserved try on the stroke of half-time, scrum-half Lewis with a typical snipe.

Elinor Snowsill kicked a successful conversion to make the half time score more respectable.

Unstoppable New Zealand

New Zealand ran in two quick tries and dashed any hopes of a Welsh revival.

Theresa Fitzpatrick ran through the tackle of Hannah Jones before Maia Roos powered through a double collision to score.

Fitzpatrick created a try scorer moments later.

The opening round's top tackler was powerless to stem the tide as Alex Callender was introduced for Wales.

The ball went through several offloads before Brunt crossed for her second try, as New Zealand scored the try of the game on the counter.

The seventh try came from an attacking scrum, which New Zealand were able to hold onto.

She converted three times in the afternoon.

Jasmine Joyce tried to go around the defence on a rare attack, but ran out of space.

Wales won a penalty to relieve some pressure.

The ball was held up after they thought they had scored from a driving lineout.

Wales were boosted by the yellow card of replacement flanker Sarah Hirini 10 minutes from time, but they could not use it to their advantage as Demant scored.

The number eight was sent to the bin for a deliberate knock-on in the dying minutes of the game.

Harries scored a try for Wales in the last moments of the game.

The fans were brought to their feet when the host added her name to the sheet.

With Scotland pushing Australia all the way on Saturday and Wales still winless against the Black Ferns, they will fancy their chances against the Wallaroos next weekend.

Logo-I-Pulotu Lemapu Atai'i (Sylvia) Brunt, Theresa Fitzpatrick, and Ruahei Demant are members of the New Zealand squad.

Amy du Plessis is one of the replacements.

Elinor Snowsill, Ffion Lewis and Cara Hope are from Wales.

Alex Callender, Caryl Thomas, Sisilia Tuipulotu, and Kerin Lake are replacements.

The referee is from Scotland.

The assistant referees are from Canada and New Zealand.

Chris Assmus is a Canadian.