Canada had gone 7-0 and then 14-7 ahead in the final at the Mikuni World Stadium in Kitakyushu, but late tries Portia Woodman and Michaela Blyde saw the Black Ferns take the title with the match ending 17-14 to them.

Hannah Darling put Canada, the Rio 2016 Olympic bronze medallists, in front as she went over the whitewash despite a tap-tackle coming in from Woodman.

But Niall Williams, who did brilliantly to grab hold of a stray pass from Canadian skipper Ghislaine Landry, levelled matters before half time.

After the restart, Jennifer Kish put the North Americans ahead again, only to see Woodman run the length of the pitch to drag the Kiwis back in it.

A conversion from Tyla Nathan-Wong went wide, meaning the Black Ferns had to score again, and they managed to do so when a mistake from the kick-off opened the door for Blyde.

“It was close, Canada are an awesome team,” said New Zealand, who won silver in Rio, captain Sarah Goss.

“The way the girls showed so much fight, I am just really proud to have such an awesome group of girls around me.

“We train like that, we train when we’re down and know as long as there are minutes on the clock, we know we have the X-factor to pull out winners like that.”

New Zealand now have a 10 point advantage at the top of the overall table.

Australia managed to hold onto second spot in the leaderboard as they won the bronze medal match against Fiji 19-17.

The Olympic champions sit two points above Canada, who had beaten Australia 33-0 in the semi-final.

Fiji’s progression in the competition was ended by a 21-0 loss against the Black Ferns.

Russia earned fifth place with an emphatic 31-0 success over England while seventh spot was bagged by the United States after they beat France 31-14.

Ireland won the trophy final 26-7 against Spain.

Langford in Canada will host the next leg of the competition on May 27 and 28.