Rugby star Stacey Fluhler called it – she told fans to get excited for the Black Ferns vs Wallaroos game that happened over the weekend, and it was all that and more.
In their 21st matchup against the Australian side, the Black Ferns played host and winners, marking their 21st win over the Wallaroos with a 52-5 thumping in Christchurch, including an eight-try bonanza from the New Zealand team, retaining the O’Reilly Cup in the process.
Although it was a demolition of the Aussies, not everyone is happy about missed opportunities and some are calling for tougher competition, ahead of the Rugby World Cup in October.
Fluhler (Te Arawa, Tūhoe) says it wasn’t the best performance for her team but was a “step-up” from last year’s end of year tour where they lost two games each to England and France.
“We’re creating opportunities but we’re not finish them,” she says. “The scrums and lineouts were ok but we just need to play with the ball more, speed it up, get it to our edges.”
Though giving credit for the Wallaroos’ performance, Fluhler noted their defensive lines had too many gaps that the Ferns exploited.
“We managed to disrupt them enough times to get the turnovers so that we could score more points.”
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One more test will happen between the two sides, this time on the Aussies’ home turf of the Adelaide Oval on Saturday but it will be somewhat the second of three games in a row when they face each other in the opener for the World Cup on October 8.
“[The Wallaroos] just want to go out there and improve as much as they can from last week’s performance.
“I honestly don’t think they played too badly. It's just probably the connections and sticking to their game plan to score tries.”
Fluhler thinks that despite the dominant victory, the Black Ferns’ flair on attack, the scrum pack and lineouts can still be better when they could potentially face England or France for revenge.
“If we want to improve on the likes of England or France and try to beat them, we have to be dominant. We can’t just be good or solid.
“If you really watched [the lineouts] carefully, we only hit a couple at the front instead of using the ball at the back. England in front, they are so good at their set piece whether they’re mauling or doing a lineout. We have to get in and challenge them much more than we did against Aussie.”
