The Black Ferns are one step closer to the ultimate reward after booking themselves a place in the Rugby World Cup semi-finals.
The home side was dominant at the Northland Events Centre, defeating Wales in a high-scoring match for the hosts who ended up 55-3 all told.
It was an almost identical scoreline to their pool A match a fortnight ago in which New Zealand won 56-12.
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The second account was a far more one-sided affair.
Wales scored only one penalty goal in the 15th minute in a contest controlled by the women in black.
Portia Woodman scored the first of nine tries in the match in the 12th minute.
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Woodman and Luka Connor each scored two tries apiece for the Black Ferns while Ruby Tui, Sarah Hirini, Amy Rule, Alana Bremner and Ruahei Demant each bagged one.
Of the nine tries, five were converted by Demant.
New Zealand will face France on November 5 after they defeated Italy in the day’s other quarter-final fixture, 39-3.
Asked of the challenge ahead, Black Ferns coach said the description of a French side as tough was “an understatement”.
“We’ll enjoy this one,” he said.
“Have a good day analysing it tomorrow and we’ll start again next week.”
After Woodman’s opening effort, the floodgates opened for the Black Ferns. A cross-field kick that landed in Woodman’s arms was quickly offloaded to Tui, who evaded the Wales defensive line to score her sole try.
Deep inside their own half, Fitzpatrick found a hole and sprinted towards the other end of the field. That set Hirini to take the defence on head first before stretching over the chalk.
After Fitzpatrick’s effort, Woodman went on a run of her own to get within five metres of the try line, allowing Rule to bust through and score.
Woodman scored her 20th try in Rugby World Cup competition just shy of half-time after a scintillating passage of play that saw the Black Ferns swing the ball out wide.
Off the back of a lineout, a driving maul brought the Black Ferns their first try of the second half, which went the way of Connor.
A little more than 10 minutes later, Wales were caught short out wide and Bremner slid across the line for her sole try.
Connor’s second try of the match followed before the final effort of the match by the captain Demant to seal the 55-3 win.
New Zealand face France while the other semi-final match will be determined on Sunday when Australia meet tournament favourites England, with the USA playing Canada.
The first of those matches featuring the Wallaroos gets underway at 3:30pm AEDT before the USA versus Canada match at 6:30pm.
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