The Black Ferns bronze final is their first in World Cup history, and France's sixth, with both teams determined to come away with the medal.
It comes just over a week after world number two-ranked Canada beat world number three New Zealand in a convincing 34-19 semi-final in Bristol.
The Black Ferns have allowed themselves to grieve before picking themselves up and focusing on ending the World Cup with a performance they're proud of, winger Portia Woodman-Wickliffe said.
She said the team knew they were capable of putting out a better performance than last week, but also acknowledged that rugby had developed in other top countries over recent years.
"We know we have the right players, we have the right management... we have an amazing skill set within each other and we just didn't put that performance out."
"I'll leave all the politics and all that other stuff to the people that need to be, but for us personally within this team, we just didn't put a performance out that we're proud of, and we're grateful that we get this opportunity this weekend."
Woodman-Wickliffe said the Black Ferns were "extremely excited" to play at the iconic stadium in Twickenham tomorrow, and they had a goal in mind.
"To show the world what we can do despite not playing the game that we want to be playing and hold our heads high with absolute pride in our abilities and walk off that field and being absolutely proud of ourselves personally but us as a program to come back stronger."
More than 80,000 people had tickets for the World Cup final between England and Canada, which also allowed fans to attend the bronze final first.
That was set to break the record for attendance at a women's rugby match, with around 58,000, the current record from the 2023 Six Nations match between England and France.
Woodman-Wickliffe hasn't said whether this match would be her last in a World Cup after ending her international retirement to attend this edition.
"I guess I've already had a final match, and we're back here again, so ultimately I'm taking it as an opportunity to play in the back jersey.
"No one really knows whether it's your last match, right? Whether you get selected, injury and all that comes with it..."
She said she wasn't sure what next year would bring, but that she wanted to have babies at some stage with that plan "on the go".
"You always play the black jersey as your last match, and I'm really grateful for this opportunity."
Woodman-Wickliffe said it was the people she would miss the most and that she has no regrets about coming out of retirement.
"When I said I 'retired, ' I missed being around like-minded people with the same values, same mindset, same high-performance level, so being back in this environment, I'm extremely grateful.
"For me personally, it's probably been the best rugby I've ever played and I've still got so much more to learn but in terms of this campaign with these girls, it's been a really awesome environment to learn the way the game is going, to have such amazing leadership with TC (Tony Christie) and with our girls, Kennedy (Kennedy Tukuafu), Lou (Ruahei Demant), Alana, like our leaders, they've (done) such an amazing job at supporting each other."
The 34-year-old said the game had changed since her first World Cup in 2017.
"The visibility and the marketing level of this game and this World Cup has been absolutely amazing."
She said in 2017, it was for the love of the game, resource-wise, and she "knew nothing about rugby".
"I was a complete newbie at that stage."
In that tournament, she set a record for scoring the most tries in a women's World Cup with 17.
Braxton Sorensen-McGee enters the bronze final as this tournament's top try scorer with nine.
First all-female grounds crew preparing the Cabbage Patch
Two other Kiwis were also preparing for the final matches at Twickenham, with Georgia Edge and Meg Lay part of the first all-female grounds crew to prepare a rugby field for a global competition final.
The role includes mowing the pitch, marking the field, putting the corner flags in place, and fixing any divots at halftime, among other tasks.
"It's a pretty early start coming in at 5am and mowing and marking and all the final preparations to get things underway, and then all the teams come in and just sort of for us, just enjoying the experience," Edge said.
"For me and Meg, a long way from New Zealand, to sort of be here in a packed stadium, it's pretty special."
Edge started working as a groundskeeper at the All England Lawn Tennis Club for the Wimbledon tournament this year, while Lay worked at Lord's Cricket Ground as the first female groundskeeper.
"It's just important to get more people in the industry, full stop.
"I mean, the rise of women's sport means that our surfaces are under more pressure, and so we need more people, so who better to do that than a team of women?" Lay said.
The Grounds Management Association showed 77.5% of managers felt recruitment was the industry's biggest challenge.
Lay said she was hoping for good weather for the matches.
"A bit of rain can mess it up a little bit, especially when there's a scrum that has to get repeated a few times, but hopefully we'll be in the clear there."
Former Black Fern wants to see fast game
Former Black Fern and two-time World Cup winner Melodie Robinson told 1News she wanted to see the Black Ferns deliver a fast game against France, where they take risks.
"I just think that sometimes it's just not your World Cup and your year, and that's what's happened this time round, and Canada were really good in the semi-finals.
"If they can get it back and win the bronze against France and do it with a big score, then they can go away with their smiles on their faces and start thinking about the next campaign."
Robinson said the team's tactics had been "really good", while she was "really happy" with their tactical kicking, a new element to their game style.
"And they're a team that has more strength than anyone else."
She said the Ferns' World Cup performance had been inconsistent.
"Some of their selections, when they're rotating a lot of people and you're not set with your starting 15 from the start, make it really challenging.
"That's probably because they've got so much talent in their team, but I just think maybe they didn't warm into it until the quarter finals, and that's been a little bit of a disadvantage for them."
Robinson said the Black Ferns had always played to a level beyond the amount of investment or game time they experienced.
"So it sometimes puts a few band-aids over some of the investment that they probably needed or the game time they needed," she said.
She pointed out how half of Canada's team plays in the English Premiership Women's Rugby.
"That domestic competition is so strong, it's got a lot of superstars in the game and that has helped the Canadian team and it's super long whereas our Aupiki (New Zealand's professional women's domestic competition) is much shorter, seven weeks so we really need to think about some of our domestic competitions, making them longer and getting those girls playing more often."
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