New Zealand win the opening game of the Women's World Cup

Up Greater Shore, non-stop protection. Welcome to World Cup Report. Let's round up this morning's headlines. And at the 16th attempt, New Zealand have won a game at the World Cup. The co-host beating former champions Norway 1-0. Hannah Wilkinson swept home, Jackie Hanza crossed for the only goal, delighted the 42,000 fans who were at Eden Park. A record for a football match in New Zealand could have been even better, but after Tuva Hansen's handball, Tottenham's Rhea Percival missed a penalty in the 89th minute. Next for the co-hosts, it's the Philippines on Tuesday. Right now, we are half an hour away from the Republic of Ireland's World Cup debut as they take on co-host Australia in front of a crowd of around 70,000. This Republic of Ireland team, led by Arsenal's Katie McCabe, Denise O'Sullivan starts after her shin injury. The team then unchanged from the 3-0 friendly defeat to France. Courtney Brosnan's in there with Louise Quinn, Niamh Fahey, Megan Connolly, Roresha Littlejohn, Denise O'Sullivan, Katie McCabe's captain, Heather Payne, Sinead Farrelly, Kira Caruso and Marissa Shaver. The big news though comes from Australia. Captain Sam Kerr has been ruled out of their first two Women's World Cup games with a calf injury sustained in training. Australia's all-time record scorer will also be absent against Nigeria on the 27th of July. The Chelsea forward posted on Instagram, unfortunately I sustained a calf injury yesterday in training. I wanted to share this with everyone so there is no distraction from us doing what we came here to achieve. Of course I would have loved to have been out there tonight but I can't wait to be part of this amazing journey which starts now. Thousands of Ireland fans are in Sydney but there's plenty closer to home too. We can go to East London now where the atmosphere is building ahead of kickoff and join our reporter James Green. Over to you James. Yeah Hayley, good morning. First of all what a start to the Women's World Cup we've seen with co-host New Zealand surprising everybody with that victory over Norway. Now it's Australia's turn to go taking on Ireland at the top of the hour and it's also the first FIFA, well first football fan festival shall I say event for Baller FC for this tournament. I'm pleased to be joined by Kate Sullivan and Rachel Gold the co-founders of Baller FC. First of all ladies I'll start with you Kate. The tournament's upon us what a great start as well for New Zealand and the co-host getting the win. Yeah absolutely cracking match we were watching it while we were setting up this morning and you could just hear cheers going up around the pub. We're so excited this morning it's like Christmas day for us and we were at Lyon for last World Cup in 2019. We've had a global pandemic we've had you know sport disrupted. To be here as today as a group as a community to be able to enjoy this together is so exciting it's ridiculous. It's exciting it's ridiculous Rachel look you're smiling away and we love to see it. Look tell us about Baller FC why did you start it and what can people expect from the events? Okay so we we set up Baller because we really struggled to find bars or pubs that would put on the England game for us or if they would put it on you know sometimes they wouldn't let us have the sound on or we'd be in a corner somewhere so when it came to the Euros last year we were like we've had enough of this and we took over a pub for the entire tournament and showed all 31 games. And Kate look the Euros we know about the success on the field particularly for the Lyonesses but off the field the growth of the game now that's reverberating around is so strong. How much have you seen it from yourselves from an events perspective and the popularity that's increasing to watch the women's game? Yeah we've loved it because we when running that pub last year we started out the crowds were relatively small but my gosh it built and built and built over the month and by the end of the tournament we had lines up around the block a packed up pub absolutely everybody going nuts and then we've carried that on into the WSL season with Baller FC we've been doing Sunday screenings to watch the matches and we've got a good solid group of fans and we're hoping to build even further through the World Cup build out again for the WSL this year and really what we're hoping is that pubs will see that actually there's massive value in this and give us you know the greatest spaces and also that the Football Association might start to give us kickoff times on Saturdays that sort of thing where we can really get together as a community and enjoy the sport. Okay Kate look I know you're a huge Lioness fan how far can they go? You know they've got their issues they have got their injuries but so have a lot of teams including Australia so you know we have I think we've got as good a chance as anyone to get to the final for sure. Okay there's a lot of hope there. Kate look we've got to talk about Australia big shocking news this morning hearing about Sam Kerr's injury how much could that affect your campaign? Look I think there's no doubt it'll affect it but we've got so much grit and determination in that squad we saw Mary Fowler play an absolute blinder in the friendly against France last week and we've got players like Kia Simon who's a World Cup veteran who's an Indigenous woman who scored the first goal for Australia in a World Cup event battled injury for close on 15 years and she's in this squad they're going to be sitting in that that dressing room now and she's going to be the one talking them out onto the field. I tell you what Aussies we're tough as woodpecker lips and we're going to go out there and get our chocolates 100%. Tough as woodpecker lips I never thought I'd say that statement Kate on TV I really didn't look the excitement is building this venue is going to be here throughout the tournament the atmosphere is going to build if you're looking for a place to watch with like-minded fans in an inclusive environment then look no further than Baller FC events and I've been speaking to the guys and they said look wherever you're watching it across the country just look at your local community look and see what options are available for you watch it as a group enjoy the tournament as it comes and as Rachel did say she's quite optimistic about the Lionesses chances so you never know there might be success at the end of this World Cup. Yeah absolutely thank you very much indeed James we're sending you to a pub on Thursday morning to go and watch some football couldn't get any better than that could it thank you. There's work things to be doing.