NZ coach highlights areas for Ferns to lift

Christopher Reive

When Allan Bunting and his coaching team took charge of the Black Ferns this year, they spoke about building towards the next World Cup.

This year has seen that as new Black Ferns have been capped, new combinations have emerged and new minds are bringing their thoughts on how to get the best out of the squad.

Now, the inaugural WXV 1 tournament is providing them with their best chance to learn.

It began last weekend with the Black Ferns’ 18-17 loss to France. It was their first loss of the year — and for some players, their first in a Black Ferns jersey — as the side got their first opportunity to clash against a fully professional programme since Bunting took over.

As expected, it offered the side their toughest test of the year so far and gave them plenty to ponder the two final weeks of the tournament.

“We learned quite a bit. We’ve

You need to be a bit smarter

Allan Bunting

been working really hard around our set piece and some of our adjustments on defence, too, and the way we want to play the game.

“I think the biggest thing for us is around how we use our kicking game a little bit more efficiently,” Bunting said.

“We’ve got an amazing forward pack who are going to give a lot of energy but they can’t keep giving that sort of pace for 80 minutes, so we need to give them a bit of a rest and be a bit smarter around that.

“Our ladies enjoy playing rugby, they enjoy playing tackling rugby, but you just need to be a bit smarter in where we do that and how much we do it.”

The Black Ferns will look to put plans into practice and gather more data this afternoon against Wales in Dunedin, both sides looking for their first win of the competition.

World No 6 Wales, who this year increased the number of players on full-time professional contracts from 12 to 25, pushed No 4-ranked Canada in their first game of WXV 1 rugby, but a couple of late tries and the kicking accuracy of Sophie de Goede saw the Canadians claim a 44-22 win.

Bunting said after watching the Welsh performance, he had an idea of where they might look to attack his side today.

“They’re a quality side, aren’t they? They certainly had plenty of opportunities, too, against a quality Canada side. They’re probably going to kick a bit, they’re going to bring line speed pressure because they would have seen the effect that had on us on the weekend.”