Come the day and come the hour the women in green tried to answer Ireland’s call, but in the end that old black magic worked its spell in the Sussex September sunshine.

In the chocolate box of rugby, there were no soft centres at the Brighton & Hove Stadium. Despite the ominous feel of Autumn just a side-step away, there was no chance that any stray black fern leaves would be blown away.

A wonderful weekend of World Cup rugby in Sussex that began with the Red Roses overcoming the Wallaroos culminated with the women from the land of the long white cloud heading north-west as Group Winners. They will play a quarter-final tie against South Africa in Exeter.

For the second day running, a near capacity crowd basked in glorious sunshine and the factor 50 was flowing almost much as the tournament sponsors Asahi Dry lager.

Ireland started the brighter and dominated the opening ten minutes, but were unable to turn that early territorial superiority into points.

New Zealand were given a welcome breather when the referee paused the match at 3pm for the National Emergency Alert to pass. This had the desired effect for the women in black as three minutes later centre Stacey Waaka (one of the non-soft centres) crashed over for the opening try.

From then on the New Zealand defence was merciless their physicality and organisation were faultless and tries from Chryss Viliko and Braxton Sorensen-McGee gave the Black Ferns a 19-7 half-time lead.

New Zealand were even more remorseless in the second half and two further tries from Sorensen-McGee completed her hat-trick before Maia Joseph’s last minute touchdown completed a comprehensive 40-0 victory.

Renee Holmes’s was immaculate with the boot landing five out of six conversions to complement her fine all round display. Her kicking accuracy could be a huge factor when it comes to the sharp end of the tournament.

Ireland were well and truly beaten here by a very impressive Black Ferns team. On this showing, they will be a real threat to the Red Roses and anyone else who gets in the way of their World Cup ambitions.