Dominant Black Ferns look beyond Australia

At a glance

The Black Ferns are set to play another doubleheader against the Wallaroos on the same bill as the All Blacks next year, but after that things could change.

While the trans-tasman rivalry means there will always be interest in any sporting contests between New Zealand and Australian teams, the fact the Wallaroos have failed to defeat the Black Ferns in 19 attempts has brought too much predictability to those games.

The 37-8 win at Eden Park on Saturday was yet another example of this and as appetite for women’s rugby grows, there could be more interest in seeing the Black Ferns take on higher ranked teams than Australia, like England, France or USA at what’s become the team’s showpiece home test each year.

Black Ferns coach Glenn Moore confirmed the team could play other nations at Eden Park.

‘‘As the game progresses, and I New Zealand 37 (Ruahei Demant, Eloise Blackwell, Carla Hohepa, Charmaine Smith, Charmaine Mcmenamin tries; Kendra Cocksedge 2 con, 2 pen, Chelsea Alley con) Australia 8 (Mahalia Murphy try; Lori Cramer pen). HT: 17-8.

think we all agree that the women’s game is getting a lot of momentum, there will be opportunities for other nations to play here,’’ Moore said. ‘‘That’s likely to happen in the near future, but these trans-tasman rivalries are important fixtures.

‘‘We talk about it internally that whenever Australia plays us, they’re going to find another 10 per cent.

‘‘We talk about having a target on our back and it creates pressure and we’ve got to walk towards that pressure, because that’s what is going to make us better.

‘‘We’ve got a long way to go yet, but we’re also happy with the fact that we’ve introduced 13 players over the last 12 months, which is encouraging for us.’’

The Wallaroos are supposedly on the rise, with the help of their new domestic competition, the Super W, and they beat Japan twice earlier this year.

But judging them solely on results against the Black Ferns, they’ve made no progress.

The average score between the two nations is 37-6, which was remarkably close to the score on Saturday night. The test the previous week in Perth, the Black Ferns won 47-10.