in eight appearances<\/a> for the Black Ferns, including six tests, making her debut in 2025 and benefiting from the opportunity to learn from experienced duo Tanya Kalounivale (29 tests) and Amy Rule (34 tests). <\/p>\nHowever, with Kalounivale, who played from the bench in the Pacific Four series earlier in the year, moving to Australia for family reasons and Rule plying her trade in the United Kingdom, Mahutariki-Fakalelu assumes the role of incumbent for the Black Ferns\u2019 end-of-year schedule, with Santo Taumata and Mo\u2019omo\u2019oga Palu the other tightheads in the squad. <\/p>\n
Taumata (23) has played seven tests, but returns to the Black Ferns for the first time since 2022 after a horror run of injuries, while Palu (24) has one test appearance so far. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is extremely important to the success of any team. Having a good scrum to play off is very important. There is a bit of a lack of depth at the moment, but also that\u2019s a lot of opportunity for the new to come and to explore what different props can bring in different parts of the game. So, it\u2019s exciting.\u201d <\/p>\n
Mahutariki-Fakalelu, who featured in the Black Ferns\u2019 World Cup campaign last year, resumes in the starting job this weekend after some strong outings in the Pacific Four series, including starts against Canada and the United States. <\/p>\n
![\"Veisinia]()
Veisinia Mahutariki-Fakalelu started two of the Black Ferns tests in the Pacific Four series this year. Photo \/ Smartframe<\/p>\n
With the Black Ferns calendar seeing some movement this year, that series was played before the Super Rugby Aupiki season in a move that Mahutariki-Fakalelu says benefited the group as they eye up a run of eight tests to end the year. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt made things a lot better. We don\u2019t get a lot of test matches as Black Ferns, so to have that first three games or so has been really big for my growth, and then taking that into Aupiki, not just for myself but for the people around me, to allow us to grow as a country at tighthead has been really special. Then off the back of Aupiki, coming back to here, I just expect more growth and more learning, so I\u2019m really looking forward to it.\u201d <\/p>\n
With Black Ferns rugby earlier in the year, followed by a season with Chiefs Manawa, she has had a chance to get plenty of feedback on her game and, before the busy schedule on the horizon, she says she\u2019d had clear messages from coaching staff. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it\u2019s just nailing my core role as a tighthead, which is scrum, lineout, and then just dominating collisions is something that I really pride myself on. <\/p>\n
\u201cContinuing to give that into every game that I go into, as well as work rate, is something I also pride myself on; just getting around the field, giving everything I can for the team, however long I\u2019m on the field for.\u201d <\/p>\n
Black Ferns v Wallaroos<\/p>\n
Go Media Stadium, Auckland. <\/p>\n
Saturday, August 21, 3.05pm kickoff. <\/p>\n
Black Ferns: 1. Chryss Viliko, 2. Georgia Ponsonby, 3. Veisinia Mahutariki-Fakalelu, 4. Maiakawanakaulani Roos, 5. Maama Mo\u2019onia Vaipulu, 6. Liana Mikaele-Tu\u2019u, 7. Elinor-Plum King, 8. Kaipo Olsen-Baker, 9. Maia Joseph, 10. Ruahei Demant, 11. Ayesha Leti-I\u2019iga, 12. Logo-I-Pulotu Lemapu-Atai\u2019i Sylvia Brunt, 13. Amy du Plessis, 14. Mererangi Paul, 15. Braxton Sorensen-McGee.<\/p>\n
Bench: 16. Vici-Rose Green, 17. Maddison Robinson, 18. Santo Taumata, 19. Amarante Sititi, 20. Mia Anderson, 21. Ariana Bayler, 22. Hannah King, 23. Shyrah Tuliau-Tua\u2019a.<\/p>\n
Unavailable: Layla Sae (knee), Mo\u2019omo\u2019oga Palu (concussion), Tara Turner (hamstring).<\/p>\n
Christopher Reive<\/a> joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Outside of set-piece responsibilities, Mahutariki-Fakalelu prides herself on her work rate and dominating collisions, doing what she can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":862742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[1466,91382,64,63,432149,303,38853,36686,188332,26046,28825,22549,432147,154288,1787,2652,25027,149588,760,432148,85,320,432145,432146,19259,8281],"class_list":["post-862741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-about","tag-asked","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-backwards","tag-black","tag-dominance","tag-feeling","tag-fern","tag-ferns","tag-joy","tag-lights","tag-mahutarikifakalelu","tag-marching","tag-of","tag-on","tag-opposition","tag-prop","tag-rugby","tag-scrum","tag-sports","tag-the","tag-tighthead","tag-veisinia","tag-wallaroos","tag-when"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862741","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=862741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/862742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=862741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=862741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=862741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}