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Black Ferns keep to the status quo in quest for back-to-back wins

The Wallaeroos are yet to beat the Black Ferns

The Black Ferns are taking no chances in their bid to sweep the Wallaroos, naming an unchanged starting team for the return women’s rugby Test in Auckland on Saturday.

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World champions New Zealand have already defended the Laurie O’Reilly Memorial Trophy after an emphatic 47-10 win in Perth last Saturday, maintaining their perfect 18-match record against Australia.

Yet coach Glenn Moore has called on the same XV to repeat the dose and even wants improvements as he expects to face a sterner challenge from the Australians at Eden Park.

“When we looked at the footage it was really clear we created a lot of opportunities for points which we didn’t follow through on,” Moore said.

“We’re expecting Australia to bring more physicality to the game too and to be more clinical.

“They’ll better from that game last week and have improved a lot since last year.”

There are three changes to the Black Ferns bench, including a potential debut for outside back Grace Brooker, while there are recalls for lock Jackie Patea-Fereti and hooker Luka Connor.

Like last week, the match will be played before the men’s Bledisloe Cup Test.

Black Ferns: Selica Winiata, Renee Wickliffe, Carla Hohepa, Chelsea Alley, Ayesha Leti-l’iga, Ruahei Demant, Kendra Cocksedge, Charmaine McMenamin, Les Elder (c), Pia Tapsell, Charmaine Smith, Eloise Blackwell, Aleisha-Pearl Nelson, Te Kura Ngata-Aerengamate, Toka Natua. Reserves: Luka Connor, Leilani Perese, Olivia Ward-Duin, Jackie Patea-Fereti, Kennedy Simon/ Joanah Ngan-Woo, Arihiana Marina-Tauhinu, Krysten Cottrell, Grace Brooker.

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– AAP

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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