Ferns duo to guide Northland
On the sidelines Northland’s Farah Palmer Cup team has a star studded lineup with former Black Fern Cheryl Smith the head coach and Susan Dawson, another former Black Fern, her assistant.
They aren’t looking too bad on the field either, with three current Black Ferns in the squad and seven players from Counties Manukau, finalists in 2017 and 2018 and champions in 2016.
The FPC newcomers may be entering uncharted territory next week against the Hawke’s Bay, but they have enough experience in their roster to win the Championship division if everything falls in to place.
Black Ferns hooker and Northland captain Te Kura NgataAerengamate is confident they’ll come out trumps.
‘‘Our team is looking really good, like really good’’
It’s not easy for Northland, who have several players who have to travel two hours each way for training each week, making a midnight curfew the norm.
They come together as a unit on Thursday nights, but otherwise there are trainings held all around the province.
‘‘We definitely have the team to do it,’’ Ngata-Aerengamate said.
‘‘It is just about working around our challenges. Be a tight-knit group just with one day a week together, that is a challenge at the moment, but so far it’s been good.
‘‘I feel we are real contenders.’’ Ngata-Aerengamate already has two FPC Premierships under her belt, one with Auckland and the other with Counties, so she knows what it takes and has no qualms about stepping down to the Championship this year after making the final three years running with her former Counties team. defeat to England at Twickenham this month. The Welsh have not beaten the All Blacks since 1953.
The outspoken Pichot, a former Argentina halfback who played 71 tests, even promised to change the ranking system that was also criticised by All Blacks coach Steve Hansen earlier this month.
‘‘It is a ranking that is badly done and I said it the first day I arrived at World Rugby,’’ he told Argentine website aplenorugby.com.ar in comments that came to light on Thursday.
‘‘It’s ridiculous. I’m going to change it, I assure you. It has no order, it is all mathematical and I would say that it is almost a matter of marketing.’’
The All Blacks could return to No 1 this weekend without even playing as World Cup warm-ups in the northern hemisphere continue to influence the rankings. Even struggling Ireland have a shot at the top when they take on Wales in Cardiff tomorrow.
Wales have made 14 changes to the team that beat England two weeks ago for the Irish clash. Gatland has stoked up the pressure on Kiwi counterpart Joe Schmidt, who suffered his worst defeat as Ireland coach in last weekend’s 57-15 loss to England.
‘‘They are under an enormous amount of pressure back home with a lot of criticism given that they haven’t progressed in World Cups further than they probably would have expected,’’ Gatland said.
‘‘There are a lot of doubts in the coaches’ minds about who their best players are – some of their players are getting a bit older – is it a time to put some of the youngsters in?’’
Wales name their final 31-man World Cup squad on Monday and start their campaign in Japan against Georgia on September 23.
‘‘We from now will forfeit it! We didn’t go in and apply for it.’’