The Black Ferns have been preparing for full and loud stadiums at this World Cup by training to a soundtrack of artificial crowd noise.
A world-record crowd of more than 34,000 watched their 41-17 victory over Australia at Eden Park last Saturday and a sold-out crowd at the much smaller Waitakere Stadium is expected for their second pool match against Wales on Sunday.
Training to the sound effects is the brainchild of head coach Wayne Smith, and while the Black Ferns suffered a little from stage fright in allowing the Wallaroos to go to a 17-0 lead at Eden Park, they were at least prepared for a noise most of them – sevens players excepted – are not used to playing in front of.
“We have a big boom box that comes to training sometimes,” midfielder Theresa Fitzpatrick confirmed today. “I don’t know where they get the noise from. It is crowd noise.”
“It was Smithy’s idea - he has all the crazy ones,” added halfback Ariana Bayler. “It’s the first time I’ve had that at training. It’s a great idea - it’s definitely something new.”
The crowd was a world record for a women’s rugby match and probably a big part of the reason why the Black Ferns started so poorly.
Few of them are used to playing in such an atmosphere on such a big stage, but Fitzpatrick, who has represented New Zealand at sevens, including at the gold medal final against Australia at the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in 2018, is one of them.
She added: “You might not actually be able to hear the person two metres away from you, so just getting used to that… sometimes we won’t be able to yell, so just signal or use eye contact.
“The Commonwealth Games in Aussie was very loud and it was probably a little different as there were a lot of people cheering for Australia.
“It’s really nice knowing that the majority of people are here cheering for you.”
The Black Ferns are getting used to a few new things at this World Cup, including increased media attention, well wishers interrupting game day café visits, and even people shouting support from passing cars.
Finding news ways of communicating on the field is just one of them.
Assistant coach Wes Clarke said the Black Ferns also needed to improve their set piece and defensive line speed against Wales but that their recent Eden Park experience would stand them in good stead.
“It was the best thing for us,” said Clarke. “We got exposed in a couple of areas and it’s great that we see that now. But we still came away with four or five points. It was the perfect start, really."
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