The Black Ferns have blamed their poor discipline and inability to win the ball, and hold on to it, as reasons for their World Cup semifinal defeat to Canada this morning.
While praising Canada, the No.2 team in the world, for their comprehensive 34-19 victory in Bristol, the New Zealand players recognised they were not good enough in several areas.
"Firstly, congratulations to Canada, they played a really good game out there," skipper Kennedy Tukuafu said.
“For us it came down to that discipline area, we weren't able to hold on to the ball to gain momentum. It was a tough game, they're a good side and unfortunately it wasn't our day today."
New Zealand did not win a penalty until the 61st minute and trailed the count 5-0 in the first half as Canada racked up four tries to lead 24-7 at the break via their greater continuity and better defensive alignment.
The Black Ferns responded in the second half with two tries but failed to consistently test Canada's defence due to handling errors and poor decision-making.
“You need to score points and you can't do that if you don't have the ball, so this one's going to hurt for a little while,” Tukuafu said.
“But we can be proud of the effort we put in out there, we had a good campaign, we've had a lot of fun as a team, our family all came over, spent a lot of money to come and support us, our whānau back home, all our fans back in New Zealand, we really appreciate the support, we felt it and unfortunately we couldn't do it today."
The defeat brings to an end New Zealand’s reign as world champions which stretches back to 2017 and represents a changing of the guard in terms of the women’s world game.
Canada will fancy their chances in the final at Twickenham next weekend – their opponents will almost certainly be England, who will face France in the other semifinal.
Head coach Kevin Rouet said: "We are hungry as people and we came here to win the World Cup. We said that if you are not coming to the World Cup to win, then don't come."
Tukuafu said: "They were exceptional and it will be a great final. I think how far the women's game has come, it's pretty special to be part of this legacy, to see how big this tournament's been, the biggest there's ever been, so we can be proud of contributing to that."
Coach Allan Bunting said: "First congratulations to Kevin, [captain] Sophie [de Goede] and the Canada team, they were impressive tonight and we're gutted, gutted for the ladies, for our families and everyone who came over to support and all Aotearoa back at home.
"All I can say is our ladies didn't leave anything out there, they gave their absolute best. Canada were accurate today and we weren't, and that's the difference."
Midfielder Stacey Waaka, who was probably New Zealand's most consistently excellent back this morning, said: "We knew that they were hunting around our breakdown.
"That’s probably been a weakness for us, but happy for them. They obviously exploited us in that area, we weren’t fronting up. We’re probably a bit narrow in our defence at times, so sometimes we thought they were going to do a pick-and-go and they went out wide."
Despite chasing a lost cause in the final moments, the Black Ferns kept throwing the ball around in the hope of scoring a last try.
"Anyone that represents their country knows that you fight right until the end no matter what the score," Waaka said.
"You have to be resilient. You have to show humility. You can't give up, never give up. When you’re wearing that jersey, you fight to the death, for your family, for your friends, for your country. That was the game plan, to speed it up to try and score on a high. We knew we weren’t going to win, but we were just trying to win amazing moments and memories out there."
It is the third time in succession that New Zealand have failed to beat Canada.
The Black Ferns will now travel to London for the third v fourth playoff match at Twickenham next weekend.
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