Dojo sessions have Black Ferns primed for final
Did you notice how physical it was when the Black Ferns beat France last Saturday to make this weekend’s Rugby World Cup final against England?
If you did, you saw that the hard work the team has been putting in during their dojo sessions has been paying off.
Black Ferns coach Wayne Smith first introduced the concept when he was head coach of the Crusaders in the early years of Super Rugby in the late 90s.
More than two decades later, it has played a key role in getting the Black Ferns ready to face England and France, after those two teams blew them away physically on last year’s end-of-year tour.
The sessions give the Black Ferns a chance to work on the moments when they collide with opposition players – tackles, clean outs (removing defenders from rucks) and ball carries.
As assistant coach Wesley Clarke says, it’s ‘‘not a hell of a lot different to what we do on the grass’’.
The key difference is that the dojo sessions take place in a room with a padded floor and walls, so players aren’t hitting the ground hard like they would outside,
making it easier for them to do repeat efforts and hone their skills.
As lock Maiakawankaulani Roos put it after last Saturday’s semifinal win, where her defensive work was a highlight: ‘‘That’s where our shoulders are made.
‘‘We work really hard on that. It’s been a large part of our preparation this year.’’
Prop Amy Rule is one Black Fern who says the dojo sessions have ‘‘been awesome’’.
‘‘Contact is the main part of the sport, so really being able to hone in on that technique, getting reps in landing on a nice mat instead of the hard ground has been nice.
‘‘At the start of the year, it was a combination of conditioning as well as contact, so that has really helped us in being able to bounce back and go again and go again.
‘‘Heading into games like this, that’s what we’re going to need, just that get-up-and-go-again attitude. It’s been awesome and I’ve loved it – a few bumps and bruises, but that’s all part of it.’’
While the time spent there has helped the Black Ferns immensely this year, the dojo was also the setting for one of the bleaker moments of their journey to the World Cup – the knee injury that kept Kennedy Simon out of June’s Pacific Four series.
The team had been doing a bear-hug exercise where they were wrestling in pairs, when one of those duos came running across the mat and collided with Simon, who had been working with fellow loose forward Kendra Reynolds.
The moment – and Simon’s pain in the aftermath – was captured in the Black Ferns: Wāhine Toa documentary that aired on Sky just before the start of the World Cup.
But apart from that ‘‘freak accident’’ there had been no other concerns to emerge from the contact work.
‘‘The doctor said to me the other day, I love your dojo because it’s actually battle hardened us,’’ says Clarke.
‘‘Kennedy’s injury wasn’t one of the activities in the dojo. It was a freak accident where people doing their activities fall into another activity.
‘‘The dojo’s actually a very safe area. We’ve lost no-one else all year.’’
Smith says the dojo sessions are about ‘‘conditioning for combat,’’ but has also noted this year that the Black Ferns ‘‘have got to be realistic – we are not going to out-muscle some of those bigger teams’’.
Another big part of their approach is their up-tempo attacking game, which helps to tire their opponent out – something that was evident in the second half against France.
Hooker Georgia Ponsonby says it ‘‘100%’’ felt like combat on Saturday, against a French team that was by far the strongest opponent the Black Ferns have faced in their 11 tests this year.
‘‘We were well-prepared for it though, thanks to our dojo sessions.’’
Looking forward to this Saturday and England, who are set to be stronger yet, Rule says ‘‘it’s going to be physical up front. It’s going to be a tough game’’.
‘‘And,’’ she adds, with a big smile across her face, ‘‘I can’t wait’’.