I have been jealously watching the Northern Hemisphere gorge themselves on Six Nations rugby and finally, it’s our turn!
The fourth year of the Pacific Four Series kicked off in April with a dominant display from Canada over their old rivals, the USA Eagles. They won the match 50-7, it’s up on RugbyPass TV. Canada have sat top of the table, patiently waiting for the party to get started and it all kicks off for real this week with all four nations in action.
The Black Ferns are hosting the USA Eagles in Hamilton before the Wallaroos take on Canada in Sydney this Saturday. Just as an aside, Canada, please get a team name! Given the women’s game’s preference for foliage, it surely should be the Maple Leaves. I know there is a hockey team called the Maple Leafs but a different code could correct this transgression. The women’s game also demands a colour attached eg. RED Roses, BLACK Ferns. So it naturally should be the Rouge Maple Leaves in a nod to their countries bilingualism.
ANYWAY.
We have team lists so now it’s time for some reckons, ahead of all the fun tomorrow.
I’m gonna be real with you, Maia Joseph straight in at starting halfback on her debut does surprise me. But I guess if you were going to do it, it would be wisest against a team that hasn’t beaten New Zealand since 12 April, 1991.
I just hope her first start at 9 goes better than Iritana Hohaia’s did against this team last year, where she picked up a red card after just 3 minutes. This led to an Eagles halftime lead of 17-5, which the Black Ferns clawed back in the second to win 39-17. In what was actually, one of the best games I’ve seen Ruahei Demant play. Dramatic stuff!
Joseph isn’t the only Black Ferns debutant tomorrow. Maama Mo’onia Vaipulu is also in the starting 15 and will take a lot of confidence from her Blues locking partner, Maiakawanakaulani Roos. I’m expecting a great game from her, in keeping with her form so far this year. On the bench, Hannah King is another potential debutant. I’m expecting the first five to enter the match in the last 20-30 minutes. With Demant slipping to second five outside her.
This back row is the back row of my dreams. We’ve seen these three work together just once in black, when they dismantled Wales in last year’s WXV. At that time, it was Liana Mikaele-Tu’u at 8 and Layla Sae at 6. They have switched and honestly, it feels more correct. Mikaele-Tu’u could be a Jerome Kaino style blindside flanker. She makes all the grunt work look beautiful and will be an absolute enforcer off the edge of the scrum.
Layla Sae currently runs better off the back of the scrum than anyone else. Oooooft I can just see her picking inside the 22 now. It’s gonna be delicious. Second to her eight pick, only just, would be Kaipo Olsen-Baker and we have her on the bench. Ahhh my heart, I can’t wait.
The other spot to keep an eye on is number 15. Renee Holmes is still coming back from a shoulder surgery so we are holding auditions for the next in line. Patricia Maliepo is the more obvious choice, having played there for the Aupiki Champions and the Black Ferns before. But Mererangi Paul is a lesser known quantity.
Paul debuted on the wing in the first test of last season, with an absolute blinder against the Wallaroos. She has been shuffled around a bit this year in Aupiki, covering both centre and wing. Now she’s getting a run at fullback.
It makes sense, I think, to see what other positions Paul can add to her toolkit because Ayesha Leti-I’iga is not far off her return to play now. Leti-I’iga is looking in better shape now than when she did her ACL which is slightly terrifying. So Paul needs to show she has versatility so she can stay in the mix alongside Katelyn Vahaakolo and Ruby Tui.
The most significant of the changes former Wallaroo, now Eagles head coach, Sione Fukofuka has made to the side that played Canada has been as a result of injury. Kate Zackary is joined in team rehab by first five McKenzie Hawkins. This means the starting 10 is Gabby Cantorna who slips in from 12, making room for the return of Eti Haungatau.
The Saracen’s co-captain, Lotte Clapp, ran out for her 150th cap for her PWR side at the beginning of the year and will be rejoining her team on the left wing. Freda Tafuna has been named as the starting flanker and will be on the hunt for another screamer like the one she ran in last year. Who can forget that try, scored off the saltiest left foot step the Black Ferns have ever encountered.
The Eagles have spent the week in contact sessions with what remains of the Chiefs Manawa now all the Black Ferns are out. A great opportunity for both groups to get some more solid scrimmage. I’d love to see more of this in future.
Prediction: Black Ferns by 50+ and Vahaakolo with POTM
This match is interesting for three reasons:
1. It’s the first outing of Jo Yapp’s Wallaroos
2. It’s a marker of just how lethal are Canada right now
3. It’s an Utretch Shield match
Let’s start with point one. Yapp has named a team with six changes to the one that beat France and Wales last season. Bridie O’Gorman benches Eva Karpani, Kaitlan Leaney slips forward to take the locking position from Sera Naiqama. Maya Stewart and Lori Cramer’s return is less surprising as injuries in the earlier part of WXV had sidelined them for these two fateful matches.
Arabella McKenzie starts at 10 over Carys Dallinger, who is currently injured but who Yapp didn’t pick for her squad of 30. She stated Dallinger wasn’t delivering the consistency that Faitala Moleka was. This commitment to the 19 year old Brumbies pivot, shows that Yapp is here to play the long game in developing Aussie talent. This continues on her bench where Yapp has named three potential debutants; hooker Hera-Barb Malcolm Heke, prop Sally Fuesaina and halfback Samantha Wood.
Last year, felt like the Wallaroos had finalised realised the best they could do. Yapp’s selections feel like the best they can grow. I am very interested to see what style of play they are bringing tomorrow and also, what confidence they are developing.
Canada will be ready to test that confidence. I honestly don’t know how the Rouge Maple Leaves (yeah, I’m gonna make that happen) do it. They have everything stacked against them. No professional programme, limited domestic opportunities, huge geographic spread and yet there they are, fourth in the world.
This is a team that boasts 90.3% success of their lineouts in this competition, topped only by their scrums at 96.7%. They also have the best goal-kicking success with 86% on target. The name being whispered behind all these stats is Sophie de Goede.
De Goede is the best player in the world right now. I’m just going to say it, if she was playing for England or New Zealand, she would have won World Rugby Player of the Year at least once. If she scores 12 points this weekend (which she will) she will have scored 100 points in the Pacific Four Series.
Another player on track for a milestone is lock Tyson Beukeboom, who this weekend joins iconic prop turned flanker, Gillian Florence, as the most capped Canadian player on 67 tests. It has taken 11 years for Beukeboom to reach this milestone and her domestic shift to the PWR has been instrumental in unlocking her recent run of form. Alexandra Tessier meanwhile earns her 50th cap.
Changes to the side that trounced the Eagles include McKinley Hunt in at loosehead, sevens star Olivia Apps as starting halfback and Fancy Bermedez as starting centre. Sarah-Maude Lachance gets her first start since the Canadians beat France late last year.
This is an Utrecht Shield defence for the Wallaroos. The shield is named for the location of the first recorded women’s international game, played between the Netherlands and France. Since then, the Utrecht Shield is held by whoever wins it off the previous owner. The first winner was France back in 1982 and last year it was France that the Wallaroos won it off for the first time.
If they win this game, it will be their first successful defence of the Utrecht Shield. If they lose, Canada will hold it for the very first time and the number of nations that have grows to 10.
Prediction: Messy start from the Wallaroos but they improve as the game goes on. The Rouge Maple Leaves, clinical as ever win 32- 12.
With you,
Alice