Lap of honour for Black Ferns, sevens

The world champion Black Ferns and national women’s sevens teams will be celebrated at Saturday’s All Blacks test in Auckland, and there’s more to come after that.

Black Ferns captain Fiao’o Faamausili and sevens assistant captain Tyla Nathan-Wong will deliver the match ball to QBE Stadium via helicopter, and at halftime, more than 30 players and staff from the two teams will be recognised and do a lap of honour.

Further civic celebrations for the Black Ferns are being planned, with the details about events in Auckland and around the country to be announced next week.

On Friday, the Governor-- General, Dame Patsy Reddy, hosted a celebration of the the teams’ success at Government House in Auckland, where children from several local schools took part in a training sessions with the Black Ferns and the All Blacks.

New Zealand Rugby chief executive Steve Tew said in a statement that the events marked ‘‘the increasingly important role our women’s teams have in growing the game of rugby’’.

The Black Ferns won their fifth Rugby World Cup title in Ireland last month, beating England 41-32 in a dramatic final. In May, the national sevens team won the Women’s Sevens World Series. They also won five of the six individual tournaments, and only lost one game throughout their entire campaign.