Black Fern making her mark

Now she is making her mark with a London club as her arrival at Wasps for the season has seen a revival in form for the Acton-based side.

Her new side had a shaky start to the season, losing their first two games, but since her arrival Wasps have been on a roll - winning four in a row, with Fox's four tries helping them climb the table and become one of the most in-form sides in the league.

Her head coach at Wasps, John Wildin has certainly been impressed.

"As far as Steph is concerned, we have been delighted with her this season. Last season we struggled to fill the front row positions, Claire Purdy aside, due to many injuries, but our resurgance this year has it's roots mainly in our forwards performances, and Steph has been crucial to this. Her set piece is strong and dynamic, but what sets her apart from many tightheads is her tremendous reading of the game.

"This ensures she is always in the right place at the right time, ready to get hold of the ball and go forward. The results are awesome - how many teams try scorers list are headed by their tight head, with a hatrick in there too!

For her part, Fox is thoroughly enjoying her time in London.

"I had planned to play here after the World Cup anyway, and thought it was a good chance to do my big overseas experience so had sorted my visa and I will be staying for at least a year and if it's going well maybe two. I had a few contacts here and had spoken to a few players during the World Cup regarding what team to play for. I didn't want to go where there were too many England girls - I want to play against them, especially in the front row as I want to play against the best players there. I had a few comments from some of the Black Ferns on who not to go to but I won't mention those!"

Fox fondly recalls her highlight of the year so far, seeing her side lift the World Cup and says that the experience in Twickenham last year - where her side were beaten by England, left the Black Ferns even more hungry for victory.

"The World Cup win was amazing, surreal and everything we had been building up for for the last four years. The tour in 2009 was a tough ten days really. Playing three games in seven days took it out of us in the end. We were pretty gutted and we went back and trained really hard and knew that we didn't want to ever lose again - hence the final."

At Wasps she can call a number of her England rivals now her teammates .

"They are an awesome bunch of girls so I'm happy to have come here. It took me a few weeks to get into the rhythm of things. It is a different style of rugby to home. It is a good competition though there, it has a lot more girls involved than we can manage. In Christchurch we only have ten teams in two divisions and there is a big gap between those two divisions so the top teams end up playing each other four or five times in a season. We have our NPC competition but there are only a few strong teams there too . I like how there is such a variety here and the travel element is quite fun here too."

Wasps will be hoping that Fox's form can help them catch up with Richmond at the top of the table as their resurgance continues.