The Black Ferns started the Whitney Hansen era on a bright note by winning the Pacific Four Series title for the third time in four years. They defeated the USA 48-15 in Sacramento, Canada 36-14 in Kansas, and Australia 40-5 on the Sunshine Coast to defend the title.<\/p>\n
Black Ferns co-captain Ruahei Demant told Stan Sport after the victory over Australia, \u201cI think what\u2019s exciting is that we\u2019ve celebrated a lot of milestones. We\u2019ve had debuts, come out mostly injury-free, and this was all before our domestic competition started. I think there will be a fair few headaches for our coaches as we lead into a very exciting Super Rugby Aupiki.\u201d<\/p>\n
Canada humbled<\/p>\n
The last time the Black Ferns beat Canada before their 36-14 victory on April 18 was in 2023, when they powered to a 52-21 win in Ottawa, marking their 100th Test victory.<\/p>\n
Their 117th Test victory was arguably better than that historic footnote, whitewashing a recent nemesis 31-0 in the second half to overturn a 14-5 halftime deficit. Co-captain Kennedy Tukuafu played possibly her best Test with 10 tackles, three turnovers, and scored the Black Ferns\u2019 first try after 26 minutes to make it 7-5.<\/p>\n
Brute force saw Canada collapse as powerhouse No.8 Kaipo Olsen-Baker wriggled sideways in the grasp of three defenders to score a 61st-minute try that put the Black Ferns 15-14 ahead. Olsen-Baker had 11 tackles and 208 carry metres in a display rivalling her stoic Rugby World Cup semi-final performance against Canada.<\/p>\n
Three minutes later, replacement lock Maama Vaipulu was even more emphatic. Halfback Tata Turner put her into a yawning hole, and she stampeded 20 metres, sending Canadian fullback Claire Gallagher sprawling several metres with a fend that even ex-All Black Cory Jane might envy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw a little hole and had a crack,\u201d Turner explained. \u201cOur forwards had punched over the gainline. I thought it was time to go.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy pass wasn\u2019t the best. Maama did well. She had that hungry look on her face, head down, bum up, get out of the way. It was an awesome try. She is a beast.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt half-time, we talked about playing through them and bringing more aggression in collisions before hurting them on the edge. To do that, we had to tidy up some small execution errors.\u201d<\/p>\n
That plan worked a treat with Olsen-Baker and Amy Du Plessis snatching later intercepts as Canada imploded. <\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s veteran prop DaLeaka Menin reflected: \u201cIt\u2019s a classic Black Ferns team, strong up front and fast out wide. Their set piece was very solid, and they brought a lot of aggression to the scrum. Winning collisions are very important. It enables you to dominate the breakdowns, use fast hands, and play wide. New Zealand have always played expansively and caught us out a couple of times. We play a much faster game now and have grown the skill set to do so but we didn\u2019t execute.\u201d<\/p>\n
The win was even more spectacular because a storm delayed the kickoff by more than three hours. <\/p>\n
Turner provided insight into the Black Ferns\u2019 mentality. \u201cWhen the storm happened, it was frustrating, but you can\u2019t control the uncontrollable. You have to stay in the moment, be calm and present.\u201d<\/p>\n
More kicking<\/p>\n
Co-captain Ruahei Demant made 13 of the Black Ferns\u2019 23 kicks against Canada. That tally is almost a third of the kicks the Black Ferns made in the entire 2022 Rugby World Cup. <\/p>\n
Indeed, Demant revealed in 2023 \u201cwe pretty much stopped kicking the ball out. All our kicks had to be either three-bounce kicks or kick passes that let you retain the ball. We didn\u2019t even have a name for a long kick downfield for territory because we never kicked one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Black Ferns assistant coach Riki Flutey said, \u201cOne area of growth I\u2019m proud of is the kicking game. The girls are eager to run it from everywhere. We have athletes who can do that, which is great, but sometimes you need to kick to get out of trouble, turn the opposition around, or present a different attacking picture.\u201d<\/p>\n
Demant put Canada in their territory with crafty kicks to space while her pinpoint grubber set up a try against Australia.<\/p>\n
Veisinia Mahutariki-Fakalelu finds form<\/p>\n
The absence of 35-test tighthead prop Amy Rule was offset by the excellent form of Waikato\u2019s Veisinia Mahutariki-Fakalelu. Narrowly ahead 19-15 at halftime, the Black Ferns faced anxiety against the USA when veteran blindside Liana Mikaele-Tu\u2019u was yellow-carded for a shoulder-to-head tackle in the 42nd minute. The Eagles immediately launched a menacing attack inside the Black Ferns\u2019 22. A massive ruck turnover from tighthead prop Mahutariki-Fakalelu defused it.<\/p>\n
From the ensuing penalty, the Black Ferns gained favourable field position from which fullback Reene Holmes scored. Mahutariki-Fakalelu outmuscled America\u2019s all-time caps leader, Hope Rogers, in a sturdy scrum display. Against Canada, she was similarly effective, adding 11 tackles and two turnovers. In the win against Australia, she came off the bench in the 37th minute and crashed over for her first test try. <\/p>\n
Halfback Maia Joseph paid tribute to Mahutariki-Fakalelu. \u201cVeisinia is an incredible player. The turnover against the USA was a big moment. We\u2019re lucky to have someone that big and mobile who can play for 80 minutes.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Debutants<\/p>\n
There were test debuts for Maddison Robinson, Moomooga Ona Palu, Justine McGregor, and Tara Turner. Of this quartet, McGregor and Turner were the most effective. McGregor scored a try on her starting debut against Australia and made a considerable impact off the bench against the USA. Turner was similarly nippy against the USA and played 54 assured minutes, replacing an injured Maia Joseph against Canada. A double Super Rugby Aupiki champion with the Blues, she first played rugby at 14 at the behest of Peter Nock (father of M\u0101ori All Blacks half-back Sam Nock). She was a standout sevens player at Whang\u0101rei Girls\u2019 High School, making a Condor Sevens tournament team in 2015 and the Northland U18 team.<\/p>\n
In 2020, Turner was awarded a Tania Dalton Foundation scholarship, named after the late Silver Ferns netball world champion. The foundation awards 12 scholarships each year. These support recipients over three years, providing financial assistance, one-on-one mentoring, and personal development opportunities. Black Ferns pair Amy Rule and Patricia Maliepo are fellow recipients.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s had a profound impact on me,\u201d Turner said. \u201cI\u2019m a shy person. It helped boost my confidence in public speaking. The life lessons around diet, training, and teamwork have been massive. I\u2019m very grateful to have had Suzy McAsey as a mentor. She\u2019s an ex-New Zealand volleyball player and a great person.\u201d<\/p>\n
England watch<\/p>\n
England have extended their world record winning streak to 36 consecutive matches with three convincing victories over Ireland (33-12), Scotland (84-7), and Wales (62-24) to start the women\u2019s Six Nations. England have won 66 of their last 67 internationals, 51 successive matches at home, and 37 in the Six Nations.<\/p>\n
England have sold out home matches in London and Bristol, with over 100,000 fans flocking to see the world champions in action. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Black Ferns started the Whitney Hansen era on a bright note by winning the Pacific Four Series…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[14719,111,43,139,69,6327],"class_list":["post-398919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-lockerroom","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398919","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=398919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}