Rapid Reckons: From the Road
Plenty has been going on so let's get stuck in!
I have made it back from my round trip to the Bay of Plenty and safe to say my rugby heart is full to overflowing. If I thought I was going to be a fly on the wall for this one, as if! Anyone who has been around the women’s rugby community long enough knows that showing up somewhere is basically consenting to go all in. Anna Richards will tell you that her rugby career started that way, when Laurie O’Reilly convinced her to turn up and next thing she knew she was out on the paddock.
So I hadn’t even unpacked my bags before Geri asked if I would be alright taking a look at the team’s line out.
Geri Paul is 56 and will still jump on the pitch if her team needs her. Consider this a warning to my team mates (and Bailey), I’ll be running until my legs fall off!!
There is a lot to say about this team, this club, the Pauls and Ngāti Pūkeko. I will be combing through the wealth of stories shared with me to write something for the Lockerroom. As I left, Geri loaned me two of her albums which detail the Black Ferns adventure to the 1991 World Cup. The albums themselves look like they could tell some stories. So there will be a lot more for me to share and I’ll be doing that here with you.
At first skim, I’ve already learnt that New Zealand played and beat my English club, Richmond, in the lead up to the World Cup, 22-0.
On Monday, I made it up to soggy ol’ Tauranga to watch PAC4 kick off. I had too much faith in the weather and was completely underprepared for just how wet that was going to be. Cannot thank my new mate, Dave, enough for sharing his umbrella with me, I think I would have drowned otherwise. And thanks to Mark too, for giving me a lift after the game back to where I was saying.
Believe it or not, rugby is being played here.
I will have to go back and watch the replays of these matches but here were my impressions from the cheap seats:
USA V CANADA
USA started alright before experience played them off the park. When you’re in the wet, you need old heads and safe hands, that’s what Canada provided.
It was a really stop start game with infinity drop balls, so hard to really mark either of their performances. USA will be pleased to have their Premier 15s players join them for the next one.
Some of the kicking was really naff. If you’re going to kick, please don’t put it right down the throat of your opposite. And it’s a forward killer to grind for metres only to end up right back on defence.
Line outs were a mess for both. Was that the rains fault? Who knows. I tape my fingers on the really wet ones to maintain some grip on the ball. Here’s hoping for drier conditions next match so you can properly assess that set piece.
NEW ZEALAND V AUSTRALIA
We won, sure, but I felt like the Aussies let this one slip. I’m not going to be celebrating when that was the narrowest scoreline I can remember with the Wallaroos.
Australia should have packed a scrum rather than take the three in the first half. At that point, they were eating up our scrum and had us on the hop. They let us off, they let us build confidence from there.
Hazel Tubic should be starting. Are the coaches watching the same game we all are?? I believe her to currently be our best back in Aotearoa. Her form has been top flight for the last couple of seasons. Hazel is also your PERFECT tournament pick, with the ability to play 10, 12 and 15 confidently.
Liv McGoverne should have been our starting 13 on Monday, no disrespect to Kelsey Teneti, she’ll have her time and honestly, I see her as more of a 15. I hear Liv was told she didn’t have the international experience to be picked for this international experience. SIGH.
We apparently don’t like form in our front row either, because the bench was the inform combo after Aupiki and I hope to see them start this weekend.
We have all now learnt you can’t have two mates pre-latch on a carry.
Why, oh why, was Arihiana Marino-Tauhinu left on the bench for that match? Brought out to lead the haka and then made to sit out the rest (why does that feel familiar??). Once Hazel comes into 10, why wouldn’t you let the Counties Manukau 9 and 10 combo loose? Kendra Cocksedge hasn’t been in her best form for a while now and I would like to see our other options given the game time before the World Cup.
I stand corrected on Ruby Tui. I was underwhelmed at Aupiki but she has obviously been putting in the work to fully convert to 15s and that shone through in her performance.
Kaipo Olsen-Baker is as good as the hype.
I think we should have adjusted our game plan better to the wet. We were still running a lot of flat passes at pace which just aren’t the go when it’s pouring.
Aussie killed us with turnovers from two player tackles, whereby one makes the hit and second is straight on the ball. It is hard enough getting momentum with slippery ball but impossible with no ball. We need to tidy this up before we play Canada.
BRING ON SUNDAY!
New Zealand Rugby have offered a public apology to Te Kura Ngata-Aerengamate. Good.
Not an agile process by any means but I pleased to finally see this apology in print. My hope that the gift our sport has been given, to learn from Te Kura’s experience and to have her here to help teach us, is fully received. And that more of us, take courage from Te Kura’s actions and head her message.
Tōko Mana Motuhake - Tū Ake, Kōrero Ake, Whakamana i a koe anō
Free to be me - stand up, speak up, know your worth!
With you,
Alice