The Black Ferns have taken a big win against a woeful Wallaroos outfit to retain the Laurie O'Reilly Cup but they'll still have plenty of work-ons to take away from Hamilton after a quiet second half.
The world champions beat their trans-Tasman rivals 43-3 in Hamilton in what was their final Test before this year's inaugural WXV competition where they will come up against other top nations, including England and France.
While the scoreline of today's match looks good on paper - and there were certainly moments in the game where they played with the flair and power it suggests - there were also plenty of handling errors and a few disciplinary issues they'll want to address before the big guns arrive next month.
The Black Ferns completely smothered Australia in most aspects of the game, but with all the territory and possession they garnered, it also created more opportunities for mistakes and they started to creep in as the game wore on.
But for every mistake or penalty, there was also a piece of brilliance. Sylvia Brunt was once again unstoppable, Krystal Murray was dominant up front and, Katelyn Vahaakolo conjuring some great runs and finishes. It's also worth noting Charmaine Smith made an impressive return to Test rugby after retiring in 2019 due to a neck injury before returning again this year.
Chryss Viliko, Layla Sae, and Martha Mataele also earned their Black Ferns debuts in the second half to the delight of their passionate friends and families in the crowd.
But it was Murray who opened the scoring this afternoon in Hamilton with a pick-and-go near the line before Patricia Maliepo added to the scoring minutes later.
Dual-international Vahaakolo then added two more before Brunt powered her way over to give the Black Ferns a 31-0 lead at halftime.
Such was the dominance of the Black Ferns that when Australia earned an early penalty in the second half from 40m out, they opted to take the three points just to get on the board.
While some would screw their nose up at the tactic, it did appear to return some confidence into the Wallaroos' game as they kept the Black Ferns scoreless for 36 minutes and held around 70 percent of the territory in the second half.
The Black Ferns weren't helping themselves though with the error and penalty count starting to creep up - in the end, they conceded 28 turnovers and eight penalties - but to their credit their defence was sound so Australia were unable to build anything from it.
In fact, the Wallaroos actually hampered themselves with a late red card to replacement prop Bridie O’Gorman after she made head-on-head contact with Smith in the 69th minute but it still took the Black Ferns another seven minutes to make the most of it before Lucy Jenkins finally found the line for New Zealand.
Mataele then went over after the hooter to seal the result as the undermanned Wallaroos were run off the park.
It was a good finish to a quiet half for the Ferns with coach Allan Bunting now having a month to work with his side to make sure they can play a full 80 minutes to their potential against the likes of England, France and Wales who will all return to Aotearoa with thoughts of last year's World Cup still fresh in their minds.
Black Ferns 43 [Katelyn Vahaakolo 2, Krystal Murray, Sylvia Brunt, Lucy Jenkins, Martha Mataele tries; Ruahei Demant 3 con, Rosie Kelly 1 con]
Wallaroos 3 [Carys Dallinger 1 pen]
HT: 31-0
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