The new boss, Whitney Hansen, has announced her first training squad .
The novelties pile up.
A. As if we need reminding, Hansen is the only woman to lead a top-10 national side. Critical eyes will be fixed on her as a new-look squad takes shape.
B. Probably for the first time a phalanx of first-choice players are absent, believed to be enjoying themselves in the English PWR.
They are the co-captain Ruahei Demant (Bristol Bears), Amy Rule (Exeter Chiefs) and Alana Borland, Georgia Ponsonby, Maia Roos and Tanya Kalounivale (all Trailfinders).
Both Layla Sae and Liana Mikaele Tu’u of Quins had to return home prematurely. Sae is included on Hansen’s list.
C. How aligned are their club contracts? We must assume that all are able to return for the second training session due next month. That would have been the first negotiating point.
D. Inexperience
This is a familiar feature of every BF squad, but as the rest of the world has caught up with Kiwi standards over the past few years, it takes on greater significance – in this instance even mountainous proportions. Of the 41 players 20 are uncapped; precisely two have more than 30 caps, four 20+.
That presents the coaches with a tricky challenge: how to allow for a much wider range of experience within a single group.
That may partly explain the twelve days set aside for this opening session in Wellington.
Even when the England-based players have returned and any injuries healed, that still leaves a lot of learning to be acquired.
The immediate target is the Pacific-Four Series. A trip to the States is certain to be exciting, but the number of twirling poi in Sacramento severely limited.
This throws an even greater weight on the newcomers selected to prove themselves in unfamiliar surroundings.
E. The last, but very much the least concern among Kiwi fans, is the effect this programme has on some PWR clubs.
Three are affected, most notably Trailfinders who will lose their first-choice locks, Borland and Roos, hooker Ponsonby and prop Kalounivale. Bears are sure to miss Demant, but Chiefs have perfectly adequate reserves for Rule.
The three managements have long known the position and taken precautionary measures. But their squads will be weakened for the vital run-in to the end of the season.
Can we expect a new dawn for Black Ferns rugby? Kiwi fans aren’t happy with current standards.
