150 Tests and counting: Black Ferns set for historic milestone

When the Black Ferns play France in their second home WXV Global Series Test in Whangarei this Saturday, it will be their 150th Test match.

It’s taken 35 years to reach the milestone. With six Women’s Rugby World Cup titles and 123 Test wins, they are arguably one of the most successful women’s sports teams ever.

In the spirit of rapid “eyes up footy”, here are 35 facts to mark the 150-Test milestone:

The Black Ferns played their first official Test on April 6 in 1991 against Wales at The Dairyfield, Llanharen. Helen Mahon-Stroud, a police officer from Canterbury, scored the first try and winger Lesley Brett scored three tries as the Black Ferns won 24-6. Brett’s son, Stephen, later became a Maori All Black.

The Black Ferns have played 44 Rugby World Cup Tests and won 41 of them. They have scored 2027 points and conceded 427.

Their biggest win over England was 67-0 at Burnham Military Camp near Christchurch in 1997. Monique Hirovanaa scored three tries and Vanessa Cootes scored four.

Amiria Rule [nee Marsh] made her debut in a black jersey in a 41-0 win over Canada in Winnipeg in 2000, when she was just 17 years and 129 days old.

At the team’s first meeting, most players already knew each other. When Rule introduced herself as being from Cashmere High School, prop Regina Sheck asked, ‘What do you teach?’ Amiria replied, ‘Year 12, Regina.’

As she was so young, airline rules required a chaperone on the flight.

Christine Ross kicked 13 conversions for the Black Ferns in their 109-0 win over France in Edmonton in 1996 and created a record that still stands. Her husband Jock Ross and son Isaac Ross both played for the All Blacks.

Annaleah and Xavier Rush were the first brother and sister to play Test matches on the same day at the same ground. On August 29 in 1998, Annaleah helped the Black Ferns beat Australia 27-3 at Sydney Football Stadium, while Xavier played No. 8 for the All Blacks in their 14-19 loss to the Wallabies. Annaleah is also cousins with fellow Black Fern Erin Rush and All Black and sevens star Eric Rush.

Kendra Cocksedge played the most Tests for the Black Ferns with 68 appearances. She also had the most wins, 53, and scored the most points, 388.

Anna Richards played 49 of the first 51 Tests between 1991 and 2010. She won 47 of those games and started in the 2010 Women’s Rugby World Cup final win over England at age 45.

The Black Ferns have won all 32 of their Tests against Australia, which is their most wins against any team. They have also beaten England 19 times and Canada 18 times.

They have also won all 11 of their Tests at Eden Park. Neither the All Blacks nor the Black Ferns have lost at the famous Auckland venue since 2003.

When the Black Ferns beat Canada 52-21 in Ottawa in 2023, it was their 100th Test win. They were the fastest Tier 1 country to reach 100 Test wins. England reached this milestone in 119 Tests in 2006.

The Black Ferns’ longest winning streak is 24 matches and it ran from 2002 to 2009. If they had played more Tests, they might have matched England’s longest runs of 30 [2019-2022] and 41 [2023-2026]. They also won 20 Tests in a row from 1994 to 2001 and 16 straight between 2022 and 2023.

The Black Ferns’ biggest Test win was 134-6 against Germany at the 1998 Women’s Rugby World Cup, where they scored 22 tries.

Their biggest Test defeat was 56-15 against England in 2021. In 2024, they conceded nine tries in a 49-31 loss to England in Vancouver.

Meanwhile, their biggest home defeat was 33-12 to England in Auckland in 2023.

The record for most tries by a single player in a Black Ferns Test is nine, which was set by Vanessa Coutts in a 109-0 win over France in 1996. She scored 43 tries in 16 Tests, including five in the 44-12 win over the USA in the 1998 Women’s Rugby World Cup final in Amsterdam, which was the Black Ferns’ first Women’s Rugby World Cup win.

In 2023, rugby fan Nat Manville found what was thought to be lost footage of the first Black Ferns vs Australia Test match in 1994 on VHS tape.

Stephen Berg from the National Rugby Museum had given Manville tapes to digitise and was amazed when they found a “really special piece of footage.”

The footage was on a tape that looked blank and had no label, so it had to be watched to discover what was on it. Manville digitised hours of footage for the Rugby Museum and received a framed letter from then-World Rugby Chairman Bill Beaumont. He was also featured on One News Good Sorts.

Manville started playing rugby at age five, but at 18 he suffered a serious head and spinal injury. After six months in Burwood Hospital’s Spinal Unit in Christchurch and 18 months in a Palmerston North motel, he was able to return home and watch rugby instead of playing it.

Portia Woodman-Wickliffe holds the Black Ferns’ record for most tries, with 50 in 34 Tests. She scored eight tries in one Test against Hong Kong at the 2017 Women’s Rugby World Cup, and seven each against Japan in 2022 and the USA in 2025. Her 20 tries at the Women’s Rugby World Cup are a record for any player, male or female.

Lock Monalisa Codling won all 30 Test matches she played for the Black Ferns. She also won all 56 games she played for Auckland. Melissa Ruscoe had a perfect 22-0 Test record.

The Black Ferns have had five Women’s Rugby World Cup-winning head coaches. Darryl Suasua won twice in 1998 and 2002 and coached 23 Tests for 22 wins.

The other World Cup-winning coaches are Jed Rowlands (2006, 15-0), Brian Evans [2010, 18-5], Glenn Moore [2017, 26-7], and Wayne Smith [2021, 12-0].

On February 15, 2023, the Black Ferns won the Team of the Year Award at the Halberg Awards in Auckland. They joined the 2018 world champion Black Ferns Sevens as the only women’s rugby teams to win New Zealand’s top sporting prize. They were the tenth women’s team to win the Halberg Team of the Year since 1987.

The Black Ferns first Test in a white jersey was at the 1998 Women’s Rugby World Cup when they beat Scotland 76-0.

Usually, a young child delivers the match ball before a Test, but when the Black Ferns beat the Wallaroos 67-19 at North Harbour Stadium on May 25, 2024, 98-year-old Mary Cutler had the honour.

She got the chance after a video of her at 143cm tall, dancing with 185kg weightlifter David Liti went viral. Liti was named to the New Zealand Olympic team at the Ryman Village in Greenlane, Auckland, where Cutler lives.

Impressed by her energy, Ryman Healthcare, the Black Ferns’ sponsor, invited her to deliver the ball.

Stacey Lene’s heartfelt gesture after her seventh and final Test, a 43-3 win over Canada in 2005, best shows the true spirit of the Black Ferns.

Lene recalled, “I was due to fly home from Canada the next day and a week early, because my 11-month-old nephew had passed away.

“I came onto the field in the second half, determined to score a try for him. I had written his name on my boots.

“During a blindside move, I received a pass from the back of the scrum, gassed it past the flanker, stepped the full-back, turned her inside out, and scored under the posts.

“I raised my head to the heavens, sending a prayer for my nephew and my family.”

World Rugby Hall of Fame hooker Dame Farah Palmer has the best captaincy record, with 29 wins in 30 Tests. Fellow Aucklander Fiao’o Fa’amausili had 28 wins in 35 Tests. Ruahei Demant has 32 wins in 40 Tests.

Half-back Iritana Hohaia became the first Black Fern to be sent off in a Test match, during a 39-17 win over the USA in July 2023.

The Black Ferns’ only draw in a Test was 8-8 against England in 2011.

England first beat the New Zealanders in a home Test, winning 22-17 at North Harbour Stadium in Albany in 2001.

They have also only been held scoreless in a Test twice, which were against the USA [0-7] in 1991 and against England [0-10] in 2011.

The Black Ferns won a record 12 Test matches in a single year in 2022. However, the Red Roses hold the record for most Test wins in a year with 15 in 2017, but they lost to the Black Ferns 41-32 in the Women’s Rugby World Cup final.

In the New Zealand women’s side’s 64-0 win over Australia on a muddy Waitemata field in 1995, Davida White humorously touched the ball down as if scoring a try five meters short of the line. The field was so muddy she couldn’t tell where the try line was.

Rebecca Mahoney is the only Black Ferns player to have kicked a drop goal in a Test. She later became an international referee, as did Nicky Inwood.

Tammi Wilson scored six tries and six conversions in a 65-0 win over the USA in Palmerston North in 1999.

Laurie O’Reilly coached the Black Ferns to 14 wins in their first 15 games during their early years. His daughter, Lauren O’Reilly, also played for the Black Ferns as a Test hooker.

And finally, the Black Ferns have won 40, lost five, and drawn one of their 46 home Tests. They have 83 wins in 103 away Tests.

So what will the result of their 150th Test match be? The Black Ferns take on France at Semenoff Stadium in Whangarei in the WXV Global Series this Saturday.