Black Ferns halfbacks Kendra Cocksedge and Arihiana Marino-Tauhinu have prepared for the World Cup, which kicks off for their side against Australia on Saturday, with a little psychological warfare.
The pair revealed today ahead of the ground-breaking match at Eden Park – which will be close to a sellout – that telling each other how bad they are on the training pitch will help them cope with whatever their opponents may come up with over the next month or so.
“Some of it probably shouldn’t be said on camera, but it’s like anything,” Marino-Tauhinu said.
“When you get on the field and people are telling you that you ‘can’t pass’ or ‘you suck’, or things like that. We give it to each other … so if it happens on the field it means nothing.”
It had the potential to put them, Marino-Tauhinu said, into the "red".
Everyone is preparing for their unique opportunity in the first women’s World Cup to be held in the Southern Hemisphere in their own way.
Coaches Wayne Smith and Sir Graham Henry have passed on their knowledge of World Cups past, including a particularly important one for the men in 2011 when the All Blacks held on against France 8-7 in the final.
Midfielder Sylvia Brunt, 18, has been helped by none other than Ma’a Nonu, Smith revealed today, while Conrad Smith’s specialist help with midfielder Amy du Plessis is relatively well known, as is Dan Carter’s help with the team’s goalkickers, particularly Renee Holmes.
The two halfbacks, meanwhile, have been verbally abusing each other on the training field.
Which is an overly glib way of putting it, but it does perhaps give an insight into how deep the Black Ferns have got into their preparations.
And it comes a crucial time, when the more professional sides of England and France have arrived in New Zealand with the Black Ferns riding a wave of momentum and support under new director of rugby Smith and his assistants.
England, with about 1200 Test caps in their squad of 32 and having won their last 25 Tests, will be overwhelming favourites for the tournament, but the Black Ferns, who total about 380 caps in their squad, have found an attacking game plan that suits them and confidence levels are high.
They have moved on well from the woes of late last year and the review that followed but Cocksedge gave a timely reminder of how far they had come when she said: “I’ll be honest, I sat up at NZ Rugby in January feeling really worried about this team.
“What I love now is, holy heck, I was sitting in a meeting last night thinking ‘we’ve come a long way, we’re ready’.”
She added: “People often ask can we bridge the gap between us and England and France and I 100% think we can do that. With the support from the home crowd, we’re so pumped, we want to put on a good performance out there and every weekend to come.”
Asked how worried she was following the fallout of the previous Glenn Moore regime, she replied: “I thought we’d be ready but I didn’t know how good we would be, to be honest.
“It’s amazing how quickly things have changed in such a short time. And that’s a credit to the girls, too.”
Smith, known during his All Blacks days as The Professor for his cerebral approach to the game and coaching in general, has been around for long enough to know that it will soon be up to the Black Ferns to put those months of preparation to use. And that his influence only goes so far.
“The thing you have to realise is that the game goes quickly and you have to make your mark. You can’t let it go - it will be halftime before you know it.”
Henry said: “I think they’re excited about the opportunity and I think they’ll embrace it. Having a full house at Eden Park – which I think will happen – will be hugely stimulating for everybody in women’s rugby and very stimulating for the Black Ferns.
“There will be some concerns – it’s natural to be a bit nervous going in. It’s a first game so I think people are keen to get that under their belt, but I think they’ll embrace it.”
Smith added of the expectation of a home World Cup and the largest crowd to have watched a women’s 15s match: “We’re working on that, clearly. We have a lot of experience. We have gold medal winners from the Olympics, from Commonwealth Games, we’ve got World Cup winners in the team. They’re talking to the other women about that. We’ve got another session in a couple of days about that. It’s not easy, but that’s the reality.”
Black Ferns team to play Australia in their World Cup pool game at Eden Park on Saturday, kick-off 7.15pm is:
1. Phillipa Love
2. Luka Connor
3. Amy Rule
4. Joanah Ngan-Woo
5. Chelsea Bremner
6. Charmaine McMenamin
7. Sarah Hirini
8. Liana Mikaele-Tu’u
9. Kendra Cocksedge
10. Ruahei Demant - captain
11. Portia Woodman
12. Amy du Plessis
13. Stacey Fluhler
14. Ruby Tui
15. Renee Holmes
Reserves:
16. Georgia Ponsonby
17. Awhina Tangen-Wainohu
18. Santo Taumata
19. Maiakawanakaulani Roos
20. Kendra Reynolds
21. Arihiana Marino-Tauhinu
22. Hazel Tubic
23. Logo-I-Pulotu Lemapu Atai’i Sylvia Brunt
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