Black Ferns No.8 Liana Mikaele-Tu’u has been ruled out of the World Cup final against England at Eden Park on Saturday due to a thumb injury.
Mikaele-Tu’u suffered the injury during last Saturday’s 25-24 victory over France in the semifinal.
She is likely to be replaced in the starting line-up by co-captain Kennedy Simon, with Charmaine McMenamin coming on to the reserves bench as cover.
“She’s gutted, like you would be,” Black Ferns assistant coach Wes Clarke said today when confirming Mikaele-Tu’u would be unavailable.
“She’s been a big part of this team so far. She’s a special human so I’m sure she’ll add stuff off the field. Even though she’s only a young player herself, she’s very good at teaching other players… all of that stuff will continue, and of course we’ve got some very good replacements as well who I can’t mention yet."
Mikaele-Tu’u, 20, is the only Black Ferns’ victim of what Clarke described as a “brutal” game against the French, although England have injury issues themselves in the form of fullback Helena Rowland who is said to be ruled out of the final too after suffering a lower leg injury in her team’s 26-19 semifinal win over Canada.
The Black Ferns had to go up several gears to match France’s intensity and will likely have to again against England in front of a sellout crowd of 40,000 at Eden Park.
“It was a brutal game,” Clarke said. “There were definitely a few sore players out there so we took things more slowly yesterday and maybe a bit slower today but we finished training fast and it was really good.
“It’s going to be a challenge, we know that, but we’ve faced a few challenges already over the last 12 months. We’ve got a special group of people here and when you’ve got a special group of people anything is possible.”
Asked how the Black Ferns had improved over the past year – they lost twice to both France and England at the end of 2021 – Clarke replied: “It’s been in a wide range of areas but probably the one that stands out for me is in our ability to handle pressure on the grass. The first Test [World Cup opener] against Aussie taught us that. We did it again against France at the weekend. We’ve been chucking quite a bit of pressure on them at training.
“Their ability to block out noise and do what they have to do is getting better all the time.”
Like the match against the French, this will be another clash of styles, with the Black Ferns seeking to get the better of their forward- and defence-oriented opponents via their greater energy, workrate and attacking flair.
Like last weekend the margins may be small but the huge support building for the Black Ferns over the last few weeks may serve to tip the balance their way.
“The challenge for us is that they’ve won 30 Tests in a row, so they’re battle hardened, they play more games than us,” Clarke said of England. “If you tally up the amount of matches since the last World Cup versus ours it would be probably double, I’d say, if not more.
“They have a system that works for them, a game plan that’s really strong. They’re not going to change that, I think, because it’s so effective and so hard to beat. I still think they’re the team to beat at the weekend.”
Asked whether the Black Ferns would be ready for England’s notorious driving maul, he replied: “We have to be.”
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