You cannot help but feel desperately sorry for France and New Zealand, a semi-final loss is the cruellest of defeats, with not even the luxury of being able to slink off quietly into the sunset to lick one’s wounds.

For the semi-final losers, there is also the ordeal of having to prepare for the match that no one wants to play in, the dreaded 3rd/4th place off.

These days the optics have slightly sweetened the bitter pill with a change of name to that of Bronze medal match, but ultimately no term can hide the fact that all it decides is who finishes the higher loser.

An 82,000 crowd will fill Twickenham next Saturday to watch this match as a 12.30 warm up to the main screening, the Women’s Rugby World Cup Final between England and Canada.

The 2025 tournament has seen the warm summer days of September drift slowly into a fully leaf blown Autumn as the daylight diminishes, and the central heating gets perilously close to activation, a sign in our house that the annual thermostat wars are about to begin.

Central heating was not required at Aston Gate on Friday night, however, as Canada and New Zealand faced each other.

In this much anticipated contest, the red-hot maple leaf blowers scattered the Black Ferns to the four winds.

It was a performance for the ages from Canada who dominated from first kick to last except for a ten-minute Black purple patch in the second half when New Zealand scored two tries. By this time, Canada had built up such a commanding lead that it was all too little too late.

Sophie de ‘too darn’ Goode strode this match like a colossus, she was top tackler, top carrier and the scorer of a try three conversions and a penalty.

Her Father, Hans, could only dream of such an occurrence during his playing days as a big, hard, old-fashioned second-row with Cardiff.

The second semi-final on Saturday afternoon saw England take on France at the same venue.

For France, there were tears before the match and indeed after the final whistle. The tears of emotion and national pride rolling down the cheeks during ‘La Marseillaise’ mixed with the Bristol drizzle, but after a bruising eighty minutes they were replaced by tears of disappointment and missed chances after suffering a ninth Rugby World Cup semi-final defeat.

France gave England a real battle but butchered at least three first half try scoring opportunities as they dominated possession following an early English try from Ellie Killdune after just 5 minutes.

The Red Roses went into the half-time break with a 7-5 lead against the run of play. However, a feeling that England would grind out a victory in the second half was brought to bear after they out scored France four tries to two.

For England there will be relief that a poor performance was not capitalised on by the French, and for the French themselves they will look on this game as a missed opportunity.

So we head to Twickenham next weekend for two matches. Firstly that dreaded bronze medal encounter France v New Zealand at 1230 and at 4pm the 2025 Women’s Rugby Cup Final between the haves and the have-nots, England and Canada. It promises to be quite a day.