Black Ferns Squad for the O'Reilly Cup

My DMs have been popping this morning, here's a sample of the chat

The Black Ferns have named their side for the O’Reilly Cup. This will be our last shot at test rugby before we host the Rugby World Cup in October, so how are things shaping up?

This is just a sample of the messages in my DMs in the last 24 hours and I love it.

First up, let me say this. Being as close to the women’s rugby community in Aotearoa as I am is both a blessing and a curse.

The blessing is that I can still have access to the ins and outs that are going on beyond the news coverage. This is important because the communications out of the Black Ferns rarely tell the whole story and the levels below that are even more patchy.

The curse is that sometimes it feels disloyal to comment on selections. Some of these players are friends of mine and all of them are people I respect. I know all the mahi they have poured in to try and represent our country to the best of their abilities. So it can feel disrespectful to be chiming in from the sidelines when I never did it myself.

But we are so overdue for real analysis. It’s important for our sport to grow beyond niceties and talk about women’s teams the same way we do about men’s. It’s not personal, it’s performance and we want to see the best one out there.

So that said, I’m going to get stuck in.

The Ins and outs

If you look as where selections have moved the most, you start to get a clearly picture of where we have some pain points.

Long story short is we have a mongrel issue.

It starts up front, three props that played during the PAC4 series have been traded for two debutants, Tangen-Wainohu (Waikato) and Taumata (Bay of Plenty). Scrums have been fairly messy across the motu during the Farah Palmer Cup and so it’s worrying to me that we are still holding open auditions for the anchors of our set piece this close to the World Cup.

How we have gone from having a prop that scored a hat trick in the final of the 2017 Rugby World Cup final to not having a handle on this key position is a failing of the programme and it’s selectors.

Which brings us to the next big question, still to be answered - who is the Black Ferns first five?

I am beyond stoked that Victoria Subritzky-Nafatali has gotten the call up after four years in the wilderness but honestly, why has it taken this long to remember she exists? Our opposition hadn’t and I got messages from people overseas after highlights of her exploits in the Black Ferns trial popped up on social media.

Patricia Maliepo has been dropped and I hope she is receiving the right support. She is still so young and so talented, it shouldn’t be the last we see of her in the black jersey. But poor player management is why Mele Hufanga stopped answering New Zealand’s calls and why Liv McGoverne headed overseas.

I mention these two specifically because they are a part of the big hole we currently have in our midfield. We have a lot of step but not a lot of power in the players picked on our insides. You need direct ball runners to give you options or we all end up going sideways.

My last comment on the side announced today is regarding the yo-yoing of sevens players in and out of this squad. This needs to stop.

These individual players talent and skillset is not exceptional, the investment that has been put into them them is. You are applying a bandaid to your 15s programme pulling in these seasoned professionals but you are also doing a disservice to the long term development of our game. I do not understand how this is going to work come crunch time with the 7s World Cup in September and then the 15s a month later. At that point, we need to be singular in our focus and all in on the job at hand.

A good case study of the need to specialise is the progression of Ruby Tui. She’s gone all in on the 15 women code and has become a better player for it. Defensively in particular, she got caught running a 7s lines occasionally for the Chiefs Manawa. But her dedication to the craft has seen her come long way in a short time and she was a standout in the PAC4.

Well, pick your team then

I say all of this to flag my concerns but I do think we are moving towards a stronger Black Ferns side. Given the squad announced today, here would be the starting team I would pick.

But that’s just my opinion, what do you reckon?

With you,

Alice