{"id":629939,"date":"2026-04-25T12:33:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T12:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/629939\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T12:33:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T12:33:21","slug":"australias-wallaroos-fall-40-5-to-new-zealands-black-ferns-in-anzac-day-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/629939\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia’s Wallaroos fall 40-5 to New Zealand’s Black Ferns in Anzac Day Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

12m agoSat 25 Apr 2026 at 12:20pm<\/p>\n

Thanks for joining us!\"Luke\"Black(Getty)<\/p>\n

We’re going to wrap up the blog now \u2014 thanks for your company!<\/p>\n

Again, well done to the Black Ferns, who maintained their dominance over the Wallaroos with a 40-5 win at a wet Sunshine Coast Stadium.<\/p>\n

For the home side, they will return to the drawing board ahead of the return O’Reilly Cup clash between the two sides across the ditch in August.<\/p>\n

Plenty to look forward to for the Wallaroos once their players have a Super Rugby Women’s season under their belts.<\/p>\n

Bye for now!<\/p>\n

18m agoSat 25 Apr 2026 at 12:14pm<\/p>\n

Final thoughts\"Luke\"Wallaroos(Getty)<\/p>\n

There was an interesting comment made by Black Ferns co-captain Ruahei Demant after the match, suggesting the match was closer than the scoreline suggested.<\/p>\n

And she was right, as the Wallaroos showed elements of a competitive game plan against the Black Ferns across the 80 minutes.<\/p>\n

What let them down \u2014 and the same can be said for their earlier defeats to Canada and the US \u2014 is execution.<\/p>\n

In their favour is a never-say-die approach, as they refused to throw in their towel tonight, even when the result was beyond doubt during the second half.<\/p>\n

They lack the resources available to the Black Ferns, which is why full-time professionalism is crucial for the Wallaroos’ program.<\/p>\n

The Black Ferns deserve the win, but Wallaroos skipper Siokapesi Palu Sekona is not speaking out of turn to say there were positives for her side to take away from tonight’s match.<\/p>\n

For the visitors \u2014 they seem to be playing with a chip on their shoulder following their shock semifinal exit at last year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup in England.<\/p>\n

They made a clean sweep of their three Pacific Four Series matches and are tracking superbly at this early stage of the four-year World Cup cycle.<\/p>\n

32m agoSat 25 Apr 2026 at 12:00pm<\/p>\n

Wallaroos’ reaction after loss to Black Ferns\"Luke\"A(Getty)<\/p>\n

Wallaroos skipper Siokapesi Palu Sekona has spoken with Stan Sport after full-time.<\/p>\n

We came with a plan and we did that. We’ve got to give credit to New Zealand, they’re a world-class team for a reason and they definitely outperformed us.<\/p>\n

In saying that, there’s glimpses of positivity [for us].<\/p>\n

Such a young group like this, with no Super Rugby Women’s games to play prior to the Pacific Four Series, I think we’ve done really well to put together a performance with the little time that we’ve had.<\/p>\n

47m agoSat 25 Apr 2026 at 11:45am<\/p>\n

78′ Black Ferns denied try\"Luke<\/p>\n

The Black Ferns thought they had a try after Tara Turner seemingly won the race to the ball in the in-goal area following a kick ahead.<\/p>\n

But Ava Wereta got a hand to the ball for the Wallaroos, and the try was disallowed.<\/p>\n

50m agoSat 25 Apr 2026 at 11:42am<\/p>\n

75′ Can the Wallaroos find a late try?\"Luke<\/p>\n

There is no lack of effort from the Wallaroos.<\/p>\n

They’ve just come up against a team in a different class to where they are at this stage.<\/p>\n

Can they find a late try to give their fans something to cheer about?<\/p>\n

55m agoSat 25 Apr 2026 at 11:37am<\/p>\n

72′ Black Ferns remain on the attack\"Luke<\/p>\n

The Black Ferns are eyeing off the half-century on the scoreboard.<\/p>\n

They had a entry inside the Wallaroos’ half but the ball went to ground to give the home side a scrum field.<\/p>\n

59m agoSat 25 Apr 2026 at 11:33am<\/p>\n

66′ Wallaroos waste attacking platform\"Luke<\/p>\n

The Wallaroos had a five-metre scrum on their feed but gave up a penalty at the set-piece following a dominant shove from the Black Ferns.<\/p>\n

The scrum was just to the left of the posts, so the Wallaroos had an ideal position to launch an attack.<\/p>\n

1h agoSat 25 Apr 2026 at 11:29am<\/p>\n

64′ Miller looks dangerous\"Luke<\/p>\n

As the rain pours down at Sunshine Coast Stadium, Wallaroos winger Desiree Miller once again showed what an attacking threat she is for the hosts.<\/p>\n

She helped the Wallaroos earn an entry inside the Black Ferns’ 22.<\/p>\n

1h agoSat 25 Apr 2026 at 11:16am<\/p>\n

51′ Handling errors coming from both sides\"Luke<\/p>\n

The Wallaroos and Black Ferns have been guilty of coughing up possession so far in the second half.<\/p>\n

The Black Ferns are in a confident mood, however, as they haven’t packed away their offload game.<\/p>\n

It’s a risk in terms of maintaining ball security with these weather conditions, but when you lead by 23 points you have earned the right to chance your arm.<\/p>\n

1h agoSat 25 Apr 2026 at 11:13am<\/p>\n

49′ Wallaroos star Duck enters the match\"Luke<\/p>\n

Both sides are making changes, with Piper Duck among those coming onto the field.<\/p>\n

The Wallaroos are hoping to use Duck as an impact player, given her ability on both sides of the ball.<\/p>\n

Anyone who saw her tackle on Canadian winger Aurora Bowie in Sacramento two weeks ago will know how devastating she can be in defence.<\/p>\n

Duck has replaced Lily Bone in the Wallaroos’ back-row.<\/p>\n

1h agoSat 25 Apr 2026 at 11:10am<\/p>\n

48′ Concern for Wallaroos’ Ellis\"Luke<\/p>\n

Wallaroos fullback Waiaria Ellis needed attention for a leg injury.<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old is limping at the moment after a break in play, but is staying on the field.<\/p>\n

1h agoSat 25 Apr 2026 at 11:06am<\/p>\n

46′ Rain coming down\"Luke<\/p>\n

The second half is being played amid wet conditions.<\/p>\n

We just saw the Black Ferns lose possession on their own line-out throw, with the ball appearing to be slippery as a bar of soap.<\/p>\n

1h agoSat 25 Apr 2026 at 11:00am<\/p>\n

Second half makes a start\"Luke<\/p>\n

The second half gets going!<\/p>\n

Can the Wallaroos claw their way back on the scoreboard?<\/p>\n

Or will the Black Ferns shift gears and extend their lead?<\/p>\n

1h agoSat 25 Apr 2026 at 10:55am<\/p>\n

Thoughts on the first half \u2026\"Luke\"A(Getty)<\/p>\n

The Wallaroos showed fight in the first half but the Black Ferns know when to apply pressure on both sides of the ball.<\/p>\n

The visitors were stung by Siokapesi Palu Sekona’s try, replying with two unanswered five-pointers.<\/p>\n

Possession has roughly been shared, and the Wallaroos should perhaps have another try on the board.<\/p>\n

They have wasted some attacking opportunities deep inside Black Ferns’ territory.<\/p>\n

Still, there’s no lack of effort from the Wallaroos against such a well-drilled unit like the Black Ferns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"12m agoSat 25 Apr 2026 at 12:20pm Thanks for joining us!(Getty) We’re going to wrap up the blog…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85102,64,63,49604,7285,4125,1736,298852,760,2633,17600,85,37284,231,4126,19259],"class_list":{"0":"post-629939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-anzac-day","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-black-ferns","12":"tag-blog","13":"tag-live","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-pacific-four-series","16":"tag-rugby","17":"tag-rugby-union","18":"tag-scores","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-stats","21":"tag-test","22":"tag-updates","23":"tag-wallaroos"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}