New Zealand won the Bronze Final at the Women’s Rugby World Cup, surviving a late French surge to triumph 42-26 in front of more than 50,000 fans in the curtain-raiser to the final between England and Canada.

It was, however, a bittersweet success for New Zealand, the defending champions and six-times winners who were surprisingly beaten by Canada in the semi-finals.

France opened the scoring through Pauline Bourdon but it was almost all one-way traffic in the opposite direction after that as superbly-crafted tries by Ruahei Demant, Silvia Brunt, Renee Holmes and Laura Bayfield put the Black Ferns 26-7 ahead at the break.

Their 18-year-old winger Braxton Sorensen-McGee stretched that with two tries early in the second half – taking her tournament tally to 11 – before France hit back with three tries in 10 minutes by Lea Champon, Gaby Vernier and Emilie Boulard to give New Zealand a nervy finale.

England are odds-on favourites against Canada later on Saturday (4pm), when the final will be watched 82,000 fans, a huge world record for a women’s rugby match.

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Leo Cullen has demanded Leinster stand up and be counted in the aftermath of their heavy defeat to the Stormers in the opening game of the BTK United Rugby Championship.

The defending champions were held scoreless in the league for the first time since 2008 and conceded four tries to John Dobson’s dominant charges.

“Lads need to show what they’re made of. We all need to show what we’re made of, players and coaches,” said Cullen after the 35-0 defeat in Cape Town.

“If you’re not winning contact points or gaining some level of pressure on the opposition, which we didn’t really apply any pressure at any stage.

“It was 6-0 at half-time when we were probably hanging in there.

“I thought the guys hung in well. But then we’re not particularly accurate in terms of how we chase the game after that.”

Leinster, who conceded 16 penalites, lost three lineouts and two scrums, in addition to having Max Deegan and Tommy O’Brien sent to the bin in the second-half, take on last season’s beaten finalists Bulls next Saturday in Pretoria (5.30pm Irish time).

“Listen, there are a ton of things we need to work on,” added the head coach,

“Over here, the set-piece battle is going to be huge.

“So, making sure we put in a big week in terms of how we prepare set-piece wise.

“Just in terms of a lot more accuracy across the board, some of that contact work as well.

“Lots of work. Lots of work this week.

“We’ll be up in Pretoria over there for a full week. Acclimatise to altitude and all the rest.

“Listen, the players are all saying the right stuff in the dressing room. They know what’s gone on there.

“The best intentions going into a game and then this is your first game of the season and you’re like, ‘oof, there’s a whole different level out there’.

“We know it’s tough over here.”

Leinster, captained by Luke McGrath, were without their Lions contingent and the injured Caelan Doris, were overpowered throughout.

“The system only works if we’re physical and I thought we got physically dominated today, if I was being really honest,” said McGrath.

“They got over the gain-line much easier. Our defence, we made a lot of mistakes in defence, which put us under pressure.”

Cullen added: “Listen, it’s Round 1 of 18. Zero points, 35-0. It’s a credit to the Stormers. They were just far better than we were today.

“I’m not taking a huge amount from this game.

“We know we’ve got quality in our group. Just dust yourself off and you go again.

“Bottle up a little bit of the pain of that because nobody likes going through that type of defeat where you lose 35-0.

“I’m struggling to remember the last time that’s happened to us.”