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The Black Ferns completed an impressive start to Whitney Hansen’s tenure as coach by thumping the Wallaroos 40-5 on the Sunshine Coast on Saturday to defend their Pacific Four series title.
New Zealand scored six tries to one, including a double to winger Ayesha Leti-I’iga, to stretch their unbeaten record over Australia to 30 wins and retain the O’Reilly Cup .
The result also completed a clean sweep of the four-nation tournament following earlier emphatic wins over the United States and Canada in North America.
It was an uplifting set of performances under new coach Hansen, who replaced Allan Bunting after the Black Ferns failed to reach the final at last year’s World Cup.
They again unveiled some sharp attacking skills, despite some heavy rain in Queensland, to break through the defence of Australia, who lost all three of their matches in the tournament and have never beaten the Black Ferns.
"Look, despite the score, despite the 30 wins in a row, that was actually a really hard game out there," Black Ferns co-captain Kennedy Tukuafu said.
"We know that Australia had nothing to lose coming into this game.
"It’s their first game at home for the season and we knew that they were going to come out exactly like that with nothing to lose."
Black Ferns centre Amy du Plessis opened the scoring with a try in the fourth minute of play, but the Wallaroos drew within two points through captain Siokapesi Palu Sekona.
The Black Ferns lifted their intensity from that point to score 33 unanswered points.
Leti-I’iga’s rapid-fire double put the visitors 21-5 up at halftime, before second-half tries to Veisinia Mahutariki-Fakalelu, Justine McGregor and Laura Bayfield.
Bayfield’s try was poignant with the Christchurch-based army captain having spoken before the match about the honour of playing in the first Anzac day test between the teams.
Renee Holmes landed five of her six conversion attempts.
The sides will meet again in Auckland on August 22.
Pacific Four
The scores
New Zealand 40
Ayesha Leti-I’iga 2, Amy du Plessis, Veisinia Mahutariki-Fakalelu, Justine McGregor, Laura Bayfield tries; Renee Holmes 5 con
Australia 5
Siokapesi Palu Sekona try
Halftime: New Zealand 21-5. — RNZ/Allied Media