NATASHA Hunt has spoken of her ’absolute devastation’ following England’s 41-32 World Cup Final loss to New Zealand.

The former Drybrook scrum-half won the World Cup with former Squirrels clubmate Ceri Large in 2014 but was unable to pick up a second medal in Belfast on Saturday.

Hunt tweeted after the match that ’gutted was an understatement’ and has said that the pain of England having come close to successfully defending their title is still raw.

“The feeling at the end was one of absolute devastation,” she said.

“To see the girls’ hearts breaking at the end like that was the worst part because we’ve all grown so tight as a group. To see everyone else so distraught just brought it out in me too.

“New Zealand played a massive second half. What they said at half-time was to just find a way to win and they did that. They had nothing to lose at that point.

“I think they had a bit of extra motivation too as we’d been the first team to beat them at home a few months ago.

“It was always our goal to go out and win the World Cup.

“We had really good first halves against the USA and New Zealand and most of the game against France but the toughest thing to take for us is that we didn’t do what we wanted to do for 80 minutes. We know we are better than that.”

Hunt was cheered on by a large number of Drybrook’s ladies side, including younger sister Jess.

And the Olympian and World Cup winner was delighted to have the backing of her former club’s players.

“I saw them as I went out for the warm-up and they were a really loud part of the crowd,” she said.

“It’s just amazing to have that support and obviously with Jess involved as well it means the world to have them there. I’m just gutted I couldn’t meet them after the game so sorry to the Drybrook girls for that!”

Hunt and her England teammates joined the successful England women’s cricket side on a trip to Downing Street to meet Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday and the pain of missing out in the final was reinforced.

“It was really difficult being at Downing Street.

“Theresa May said what a spectacle the final was and it was great for women’s sport to have us do so well and the cricket ladies’ achievement is well deserved.

“For us, it was still very raw and we haven’t had a chance to properly reflect on it all so with the cricket team there with their trophies it was a bit hard.

“They deserve a lot of credit for what they’ve done.

“We all want to see more women and girls playing rugby and it’s about creating a legacy so that the growth continues.

“If more people are playing rugby then we’ve done our job.”