Being the only team to have remained undefeated through the first three rounds, the Black Ferns Development side raked in 10 unanswered tries in the first half with another 11 tries in the second half to finish with 131 points to PNG, nil.
Black Ferns Development Coach Wayne Maxwell said that the management team was happy with the players’ performance and looked forward to working closely with them moving forward.
“Our new players really came together and it was their first time in a high performance environment, and we challenged them with the short turnaround with a few things we wanted them to do in the park – and they came out really well over the last three games,” Maxwell said.
“It’s been very helpful to have some good quality games, the score must not have reflected that today, but I know that both teams put their best on the park,” he added.
“For us it was just about staying in our system and just keep playing our game and so we got a lot out of that,” Maxwell said.
The Black Ferns Development Side Coach said that the Oceania Rugby Women’s Championship has been a great platform to develop new players and put them in an environment where they were tested.
“The Farah Palmer Cup back home is a strong competition in New Zealand but this tournament takes it to another level to actually see who is willing to shift up, so the players are open minded about they are needed to do,” Maxwell said.
In the second match of Round 3, Australia A contested well against Manusina XV and won that match by 27 points to 5.
In a tale of two very different halves, Australia scored 4 tries in the first half with Samoa unable to add anything to the chalk.
In the second half, both teams contested very well with both scoring only 5 points each to conclude the match after a very physical second half.
Australia A Captain Michaela Leonard said that the team had planned to stick to their training structures and systems through the 80 minutes.
“We came into this game wanting to stay composed, sticking to our game and sticking to our structures and sticking to the shapes we’ve been working on in training for the last few weeks,” Leonard said.
“It has been an incredible experience and we’ve really grown and increased our skills during this time in Fiji,” she added.
Following the third round of the Oceania Rugby Women’s Championships, Samoa will play Fiji for the Rugby World Cup Qualifiers and Papua New Guinea will play a Fiji B side for Round 4 of the tournament.
This year’s Championship is the third ever tournament for the Women’s Championship with the biggest number of teams to date (6).
New Zealand becomes only the second team to win the Championships with Fiji winning two previously (2016 & 2018).
Oceania Rugby Women's Championship Draws | Round 4 | Saturday 30 November 2019
1.30pm Fijiana B v ANZ Papua New Guinea Palais
4.00pm Manusina XV v Fijiana XV
