Richards’ presence boosts Auckland

It has kind of all fallen into place for former Black Fern Anna Richards.

After spending five years coaching women’s rugby in Hong Kong, Richards travelled the globe carefree for months and the minute she returned home to Auckland, she landed the assistant coaching role with the Auckland women’s team.

‘‘I kind of got to a stage where I thought I better get a job.’’

That she has. She was hired as New Zealand Rugby’s women’s development manager for the Auckland region and is doing some coaching on the side.

Auckland, however, are not the strong force they used to be and Richards knows a spot in the Farah Palmer Cup finals is going to be a huge ask for a team filled with youth.

‘‘They didn’t have a great season last year and this year is just about restoring a bit of mana in the team. It’s a bit of a rebuild period, we’ve got a lot of young players in the side and sprinkled amongst that we’ve got some great talent as well. It is an exciting team to be a part of.

‘‘We are just taking it game by game and we want to improve. It is all a bit new for a lot of them.

‘‘I’m not going to say we don’t want to be there [the finals] but if it is realistic or not, we’ve got a lot of challenges.’’

‘‘The Farah Palmer Cup is a short season and you’ve got to start and you’ve got to start well. You can’t fall down anywhere and you can’t recover.’’

The Aucklanders will host twotime champions Canterbury this weekend in the second round of the Premiership.

While Canterbury are missing Black Ferns halfback Kendra Cocksedge, Auckland are three Black Ferns short themselves.

Alicia Nelson, Charmaine Smith and Eloise Blackwell are all sitting out this week after playing more than 300 minutes with the Black Ferns this season.

‘‘Canterbury without Kendra, it will be a different team this week, she’s a bit of a director for them,’’ Richards said.

‘‘Canterbury are a great side, they’ve retained the most players from last year. They are a fit team, they are a tidy team and do the simple things well and that is why they have won the last two years.’’

Richards knows how to win tournaments. She won four World Cups in a sporting career that spanned two decades. But she is more relaxed than ever over results and says she just wants to grow the women’s game in the region and teach the young players some new skills to take with them.

The Aucklanders beat Waikato last week in the opening round, while Canterbury were the victors against Wellington.