Emily Cooke in action for England. THERE was no payback for Salisbury winger Emily Cooke, when England's rugby women failed to avenge their 2002 World Cup defeat at the hands of New Zealand.

Instead, there was yet more heartache when England suffered a devastating 38-0 pasting at the hands of a classy Black Ferns side in their Churchill Cup final clash in Edmonton, Canada, at the weekend.

Cooke, who missed out on playing in the World Cup final two years ago, was unable to add to the two tries she scored in the previous round against Canada, with the England side hopelessly outplayed and outmuscled by the Black Ferns - now confirmed as the world's number one women's team.

Discouragingly, the result follows hard on the heels of England's Six Nations defeat by France.

Reflecting on the heaviest loss of his four-year tenure, coach Geoff Richards admitted: "There's only one way to go from here."

Facing the tough task of working on form and re-building the English squad's dented morale ahead of the 2006 World Cup, Richards added: "I'd rather get flogged here than in two years time.

"Next year's Six Nations is still a long way off.

"We have had a summer off and some of our players are coming off a long hard season."

England were only in Saturday's match for ten minutes before the Black Fern's asserted themselves, putting the opposition's scrum under sustained pressure and causing their line-out to sputter.

Richards said: "I thought it would be closer but unfortunately some of our players didn't front up.

"The Black Ferns were excellent. We lost to a better team. They are streetwise and their set-piece was much better.

"We didn't have a platform to work from."

There was more disappointment over the weekend for the England men's team, including Salisbury World Cup winner Richard Hill, who lost their second successive test against the All Blacks at Eden Park 36-12.