Good morning and welcome back to Sidelines with… not the beaming figure of 1News sport presenter Scotty Stevenson above, but in fact 1News digital sport reporter Patrick McKendry, who has been sent in from the bench.

The Black Ferns were liberal with their hugs in London before their highly-anticipated Test against the Red Roses at Twickenham but unfortunately for them that generosity of spirit continued on the field.

In short, after their royal love-in at Buckingham Palace, they gave the ball away a little too often against the best side in the world and England, with former All Blacks head coach John Mitchell now in charge, were always going to be ruthless enough to capitalise.

There were positives in the 24-12 defeat, however, and yes, this will sound like an apology on behalf of a professional team who carry the tag ‘world champions’, but the loss should be put into context.

It’s probably fair to say that the All Blacks got a bit of a free ride after losing their two Tests against the Boks in South Africa recently, so it’s only fair to measure the Black Ferns on the same scale.

No, they haven’t got a new coach like the All Blacks, but they haven’t played since July, when they put 10 tries past the Wallaroos in a demolition in Brisbane. In the Test before that the Black Ferns thrashed Australia 67-19 at North Harbour.

They are world champions by virtue of holding off a 14-woman England in the World Cup final at Eden Park two years ago (an occasion which will still resonate for those lucky enough to be there) and are now ranked second in the world behind the Red Roses.

But - and this is the concerning thing for New Zealand - there is no doubt the balance of rugby power in the women’s game is in the Northern Hemisphere, and, if you take the Boks out of the equation, this applies to the men’s game, too.

New Zealand Rugby could close the gap on the gap between the third-ranked All Blacks and the No.1 South Africa and No.2 Ireland by allowing head coach Scott Robertson to select qualified players from overseas clubs – and in my opinion that concession will almost certainly happen before the 2031 World Cup in the USA - but it’s not that simple for the Black Ferns.

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In the immediate aftermath of David Nyika’s technical knockout victory over American Tommy Karpency, the Kiwi’s opponent was praised for “saving the event”.

Hyperbole is an ever present in professional boxing, but this observation was accurate because while most of the 1,000-or-so crowd at Auckland’s Viaduct Events appeared to enjoy the undercard, that was nothing on the attention given to the main event. In other words, the night’s entertainment would have been a difficult sell without the Nyika factor.

Karpency took the fight on two weeks’ notice after Nyika’s previous opponent, Australian Blake Caparello, was withdrawn due to a failed drugs test.

Karpency, no doubt persuaded to travel Down Under by what is understood to be a substantial financial offer, was stopped in the third round by Nyika, a former Olympic Games bronze medallist and a man who was far bigger, far better and fighting at home in front of a raucous crowd.

So, the American fulfilled his role as a stand-in comprehensively dispatched without Nyika having to get out of third gear.

The reality, as all those involved know, is that Caparello would have been a far more capable opponent and the talk around the tables on Saturday night was that the southpaw and his team were confident of a massive upset against Nyika.

It was a homecoming of sorts for the now Queensland-based Nyika, who was fighting in New Zealand for the first time since his professional debut three and a half years ago.

The 29-year-old spoke afterwards about wanting to fight again before the end of the year – but that’s likely to be in Saudi Arabia or the United Kingdom rather than in New Zealand.

One thing is for certain for a man wanting to move up the rankings for a world title shot within the next 18 months or so, his next opponent will be far tougher, and, when he does fight again at home, the pressure on the matchmaker to pick a rival that will inject some jeopardy into proceedings – but not too much - will be acute.

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Without delving into the darker reaches of social media, the consensus seems to be that the All Blacks weren’t too far away from South Africa in their two recent Test defeats.

Playing the world champions at home was always going to be difficult, goes the generally accepted theory, and, under Rassie Erasmus, the Boks have total faith in their game plan and utter self-belief that they will prevail.

Throw in the close margins of defeat – four points and six points – and the fact the All Blacks played extremely well at times (apart from their well-documented failures in the final quarters of both), and well, there seems an acceptance that New Zealand are building but simply aren’t on the same level as the Boks.

It means that Scott Robertson has avoided the attacks levelled at Ian Foster during his first season in charge, although part of that may be connected to the idea that Razor was a break from the establishment.

The feeling was that Foster only got the job because the conservative-minded NZ Rugby wanted to stay as close to the status quo as possible.

But all of that will change if the All Blacks don’t do the job against the Wallabies in Sydney on Saturday.

The New Zealand rugby public can deal with failures against the world champs (and even four defeats to them in a row) /but they won’t be able to stomach a loss to a Wallabies side which coughed up nine tries against Argentina recently.

Not even Joe Schmidt has been able to stabilise the free radical that is Australian rugby but if he does manage it this week the scrutiny on Robertson will be like nothing he has experienced ahead of a rematch in Wellington where the All Blacks have not won a Test since 2018.

Making this week even more intriguing of course is that Schmidt was part of that “establishment” himself having been Foster’s right-hand man.

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There was so much to like about Tasman making history with their first Ranfurly Shield defence against Wellington yesterday afternoon that it’s tricky to know where to start.

So I’ll begin with the Sunday afternoon kick-off in bright sunshine and move on to the little packed-out Landsdowne Park grandstand.

The intensity of the match between two previously undefeated sides was matched by those on the sidelines, with Tasman All Blacks Finlay Christie and David Havili – unwanted or under-utilised by Scott Robertson respectively – both proving a point or two.

Fullback Ruben Love did similarly for Wellington.

Tasman, who took the Shield off Hawke’s Bay, have already shown the Log o’ Wood to most corners of the province, perhaps in the belief that they had better make the most of it before it goes.

They may not have a rich Shield history – yet – but Marlborough’s heroics with the most special rugby trophy in New Zealand still echo from the past and those of a certain age may have felt a certain nostalgia when seeing Jamie Joseph, son of long-serving Marlborough prop Jim, in the grandstand.

If they play like they did against Wellington – holding their nerve to win 28-15 after the visitors twice closed to within one point in the second half – Tasman’s reign appears extremely promising. Their next defence is against Auckland on October 2.

A final thought on a match which featured a consistently high level of skill was the performance of Tasman’s 21-year-old left wing Kyran Taumofolau, who beat several defenders to score a crucial try with eight minutes remaining.

Few people know the feeling of scoring a crucial try in a Shield match in front of friends and family but Taumofolau, who attended Marlborough Boys’ College, does.

Cricket – The first Test of New Zealand’s tour of Sri Lanka starts in Galle on Wednesday and all of those involved will be hoping for better ground conditions than those which greeted the Black Caps and Afghanistan in farcical scenes at the Greater Noida Sports Complex in India recently. In news that probably won’t surprise any Black Caps supporters, thunder, lightning and showers are predicted on Wednesday in Galle.

League - NRL finals continue on Friday night.