New Zealand coach Allan Bunting said he thought the Black Ferns were building nicely for their Women’s World Cup title defence despite being held to a 27-27 draw by Canada in a Pacific Four clash at the weekend.
The Black Ferns had been desperate for a win in Christchurch on Saturday to avenge their first ever loss to the Canadians in last year’s Pacific Four and confirm that they were on the right track for the August 22 to September 27 World Cup.
Canada, who are ranked second in the world behind World Cup hosts England and ahead of New Zealand, created problems early on for the Black Ferns with their big ball-runners, and went ahead with a Shoshanah Seumanutafa try four minutes from time.
Centre Sylvia Brunt crashed over the line after multiple phases to level the scores after 83 minutes but flyhalf Ruahei Demant was unable to slot the conversion from the sidelines to give New Zealand the win.
Bunting was delighted with the way the team rescued the draw even if he thought they had enough chances to put the game to bed earlier in the match.
“Just that intent and effort from our ladies was outstanding, we’ve just got to be a bit better at execution,” Bunting told reporters.
“Canada’s a quality side and once they got going, they’re pretty hard to stop. The speed of the ball was pretty hard, and we need to react a little bit quicker.
“We needed that test now and we’ll get some pretty good learnings out of this. We’ll definitely be better for it.”
New Zealand winger Ayesha Leti-I’iga scored tries either side of halftime and Bunting said he would be bringing in some players recruited from the Sevens programme for the final Pacific Four test against the United States next week.
The ninth-ranked Americans lost 27-19 to Australia in Canberra on Saturday and will be without veteran centre Alev Kelter for the clash in Auckland.
Kelter faces a lengthy ban after being shown a red card for stamping on the head of Australia’s Georgie Friedrichs while trying to break free of a tackle, an act described by referee Aimee Barrett-Theron as “thuggery”.
