Black Ferns 2024

Man ferns defensive line has turned to crap

USA fumble the ball 30cm from the line.

All USA second half, ferns looking unorganized

Pretty much every ruck, defending players hands straight to deck, ref had ignored them all

Nice try there, gift to ruby by Paul

Grinding try by USA. Our lineout is shit, I think it would be a yellow if no try, hair a dozen penalties in a row

Wow, that's some tired and woeful tackling there. Layla Sae running over/ through three Americans from 40m out to score.

And again, they're run out of steam

Jesus, straight onto her hands, gets the penalty

57-5, good first quarter, the rest pretty average, and a few tries at the end where the USA ran out of steam

A similar scoreline to Canada over the USA so much tougher opponents to come.

I liked the loose forward combo including the injection of Olsen-Baker from the bench. A good debut from Vaipulu and King.

Good first 30mins
Shit second half
Joseph & King went pretty good
Reserve forwards weren’t much chop except KOB in her first test in 2 years. Defensive system was shot in the second half.

Plenty to work on before the better Pac-4 teams

@Machpants said in Black Ferns 2024:

Pretty much every ruck, defending players hands straight to deck, ref had ignored them all

Gets my goat. Same happened vs England. The refs in women’s rugby seem to be blind to NH-style cheating at the ruck. Especially England.

One change to the starting XV due to injury (Chryss Viliko for Kate Henwood). Canada will be a much tougher opponent (2nd vs 3rd).

Are there no TMOs in this series? Black Ferns score a clear as day try with the ref right there and get dudded.

@KiwiMurph The rest of the officials including the TMO are Aussies. The fix is on.

Canada currently hold the Utrecht Shield (Womens rugby's lineal world title) so they are making a good fist of defending it!

Joseph's kicking options have been poor.

The strange thing is they do have a TMO.

Canada hang on to win.

Deserved winners.

Far too much aimless kicking by NZ. That can't have been their strategy. That also seems to be Tui's only trick.

Discipline was a problem and that gave Canada entries into the NZ 22 m and lineouts. And the BFs still have trouble defending the maul so they'll struggle to contain England there.

Lastly, NZ teams should NEVER play at that stadium again as it's only good for unwanted records.