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.
Northland assistant coach and media manager Scott Collins said they just had to get out on the field and compete.
‘‘It has been difficult, we only relaunched the club championship this year so we have gone from zero to 100 very fast.
‘‘Our first expectations is just being there for a start. We want to get out on the field and make ourselves visible, any win will be a bonus.
‘‘We hope to ruffle some feathers. It is the first time for a lot of the girls playing at this level.’’
Defending Premiership titleholders Canterbury will open their campaign today against Wellington, who were promoted after winning the Championship in 2018.
Canterbury have won the title for the last two seasons and are the holders of the JJ Stewart Trophy, which will go on the line today with the game being played in Christchurch.
Captain and Black Ferns halfback Kendra Cocksedge sits on 800 career points, the highest in the competition’s history.
The opening round of the competition will see six of the Premiership teams take the field – Bay of Plenty will play Counties in Tauranga, while Waikato will host Auckland.
Teams will play each opposition in their own division once throughout the round-robin, with the Championship teams advancing to quarterfinals and the Premiership teams going straight to semifinal action.