{"id":398635,"date":"2026-04-26T15:47:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T15:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/398635\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T15:47:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T15:47:22","slug":"black-ferns-beat-wallaroos-to-complete-pacific-four-clean-sweep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/398635\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Ferns beat Wallaroos to complete Pacific Four clean sweep"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Amy<\/p>\n

\nAmy Du\u2019Plessis of the Black Ferns.
\nPhoto: photosport\n<\/p>\n

The Black Ferns have completed an impressive start to Whitney Hansen’s tenure as coach by thumping the Wallaroos 40-5 on the Sunshine Coast to defend their Pacific Four series title.<\/p>\n

New Zealand scored six tries to one, including a double to winger Ayesha Leti-I’iga, to stretch their unbeaten record over Australia to 30 wins and retain the O’Reilly Cup .<\/p>\n

The result also completed an clean sweep of the four-nation tournament following earlier emphatic wins over the United States and Canada in North America.<\/p>\n

It was an uplifting set of performances under new coach Hansen, who replaced Allan Bunting after the Black Ferns failed to reach the final at last year’s World Cup.<\/p>\n

\"Black<\/p>\n

\nBlack Ferns forward Kaipo Olsen-Baker reacts after scoring before having the try over turned against the Wallaroos.
\nPhoto: photosport\n<\/p>\n

They again unveiled some sharp attacking skills, despite some heavy rain in Queensland, to break through the defence of Australia, who lost all three of their matches in the tournament.<\/p>\n

Black Ferns outside centre Amy du Plessis opened the scoring with a try in the fourth minute of play, but the Wallaroos drew within two points through captain Siokapesi Palu Sekona.<\/p>\n

The Black Ferns lifted their intensity from that point to score 33 unanswered points.<\/p>\n

Leti-I’iga’s rapid-fire double put the visitors 21-5 up at halftime, before second-half tries to Veisinia Mahutariki-Fakalelu, Justine McGregor and Laura Bayfield.<\/p>\n

\"Laura<\/p>\n

\nLaura Bayfield.
\nPhoto: photosport\n<\/p>\n

Bayfield’s try was poignant, with the Christchurch-based army captain having spoken before the match about the honour of playing in the first-ever Anzac day test between the teams.<\/p>\n

Renee Holmes landed five of her six conversion attempts.<\/p>\n

The sides will meet again in Auckland on August 22.<\/p>\n

Follow how the game unfolded below.<\/p>\n

Black Ferns selectors made four changes to the side that beat Canada<\/a> in Kansas City last weekend for the historic clash against Australia.<\/p>\n

Kickoff is 9.45pm.<\/p>\n

Black Ferns: 1. Chryss Viliko, 2. Georgia Ponsonby, 3. Mo’omo’oga Palu, 4. Maiakawanakaulani Roos, 5. Laura Bayfield, 6. Liana Mikaele-Tu’u, 7. Kennedy Tukuafu – co-captain, 8. Kaipo Olsen-Baker, 9. Maia Joseph, 10. Ruahei Demant – co-captain, 11. Ayesha Leti-I’iga, 12. Logo-I-Pulotu Lemapu-Atai’i Sylvia Brunt, 13. Amy Du’Plessis, 14. Justine McGregor, 15. Renee Holmes.<\/p>\n

Reserves: 16. Atlanta Lolohea, 17. Maddison Robinson, 18. Veisinia Mahutariki-Fakalelu, 19. Maama Mo’onia Vaipulu, 20. Mia Anderson, 21. Tara Turner, 22. Hannah King, 23. Mererangi Paul.<\/p>\n

\"Black<\/p>\n

\nPhoto: Liam Swiggs \/ RNZ\n<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amy Du\u2019Plessis of the Black Ferns. Photo: photosport The Black Ferns have completed an impressive start to Whitney…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-398635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}