The Black Ferns are adamant they've got the time to catch up to the likes of England and France ahead of next year's Rugby World Cup despite being outplayed on their European tour.
With one Test to go, the gulf between the Kiwi team and European powerhouses has been eye opening.
To date, the Black Ferns have conceded 137 points in their three Tests so far while scoring just 40 of their own.
Those figures grow more daunting with the fact that there’s just 325 days until the World Cup kicks off in New Zealand but coach Wes Clarke isn’t fazed.
Clarke cited a poor run in to their successful 2017 campaign as evidence it can be done.
Unlike then, the Black Ferns have lacked crucial game time due to the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in a two-year international hiatus before this year’s eye-opening tour.
Clarke conceded the vast difference in recent experience is an issue.
“That’s a scary thing for us is just how battle-hardened they are,” Clarke said.
“They’re doing little things a bit different to what we can train in three weeks so we’ve got to catch up on them.”
The players themselves believe it can be done with captain Les Elder saying their current problems aren’t to do with gameplans but rather execution.
“Everything our coaches have presented to us that they’ve anticipated [England and France] would do, they’ve done,” Elder said.
“So I back the gameplan that’s been rolled out in front of us – we’ve just got to put it together.”
Both players and coaches will be feeling a squeeze to show some improvement in their final Test of the year when they play France Sunday morning NZT.
“For us, it’s just responding to what we call positive tension that we apply on ourselves,” Elder said.
“We just want to be able to have those hard conversations on the go and that takes trust to get to that space so we're building to that.”
SHARE ME