Black Ferns: Historic first Lions tour offers 'new pinnacle' for players

It is exactly one year to go until the third Test of the first-ever British & Irish Lions Women’s tour. Anticipation for the tour is already slowly gaining as Lions head coach Jo Yapp attends WXV Global Series fixtures across England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Just how Yapp puts her team together will remain of immense interest. But just as important as the countdown to Lions selections, there is a mounting anticipation among the Black Ferns.

The opponents for this historic inaugural tour – comprised of three Test matches and tour fixtures against a Black Ferns XV and an Invitational XV – are casting their eyes towards the future, albeit without diverting their focus from this weekend’s clash with the Red Roses at Allianz Stadium.

Next year’s tour has been years in the making. The process began with a feasibility study in 2021. Three years later the Lions announced that a tour would take place. Upon its announcement, New Zealand’s former Economic Development Minister described how hosting the Lions tour could “increase the value and visibility of women’s sport in New Zealand and create new sporting heroes and role models for our younger generations”. The New Zealand government has even supported the tour with NZ$3.9m.

In the 138-year history of the men’s Lions, it is against the All Blacks that the tourists have struggled the most. In 41 meetings, the Lions have won seven matches, drawn four and lost 30.

There is perhaps no more fitting place for the Lions Women to begin their history than New Zealand. Over the years, New Zealand have provided the global game with so many of its stars.

Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, Kendra Cocksedge, Analeah Rush and Rochelle Martin all stunned audiences across the globe during their playing careers. Each of them, in their own way, has paved the way for the Lions’ visit in 2027.

Throw in six Women’s Rugby World Cup titles, some of the game’s current stars and a rugby-mad country, and it is the perfect formula for must-watch, high-quality women’s Test rugby.

“It has created another little pinnacle event, really, for us, right? To have the opportunity to host the Lions series for the first time – it’s obviously historic,” Ruahei Demant told RugbyPass.

“For us as players to have the opportunity in our careers to be involved in that, knowing how rare that opportunity comes around each cycle, it’s going to be so exciting.”

Memories of Lions tours past are not far from reach. That is another part of the magic that they invoke. Ask Demant for hers, the answer comes startlingly quick.

“For me, 2005, I was only like 10. Dan Carter’s performance, you know?”

In truth, it is not hard to see why. Dan Carter is widely regarded as the All Blacks’ greatest fly-half. Demant, meanwhile, has forged her own legacy as a world champion and former World Rugby Women’s 15s Player of the Year.

At 31, Demant has already won a Rugby World Cup and been named World Rugby Women’s 15s Player of the Year, among a long list of international honours. But this change in the calendar, to include a Lions tour in the middle of the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2029 cycle, has meant that there is something new on the horizon. And, with it, something new to achieve.

“It’s easy to look to four years’ time,” Demant said. “Then this gets dropped right bang in the middle. What an awesome opportunity that is, not just for new players but also experienced players like myself, who have been around the block for a while, to be a part of something new and to experience a first.”

Of course, the Black Ferns have a reminder close at hand about how special a Lions tour can be.

During his playing career, Riki Flutey played both against and for the Lions. The Black Ferns’ current skills and backs coach played at inside centre for the Wellington Hurricanes.

Four years later, after he qualified for England on residency grounds, he was selected for the South Africa tour by Sir Ian McGeechan and started in the third Test against the Springboks.

Those experiences mean that the 46-year-old has a reasonably firm grasp of what both sets of players will experience when hordes of supporters descend upon Whangarei, Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch.

“Man, it just makes it all real when you see 30,000, 40,000 tourists and supporters coming to share that journey with you and coming to watch you play,” Flutey said.

“It was just something so special – rubbing shoulders with some of the best players in the world, learning off those guys and making those connections for life with those people was just something that, being retired now, I just cherish.”

It is not only players that will get to experience something new. Supporters will get a new opportunity too.

When New Zealand Rugby unveiled the five venues that will host the Test and tour fixtures next September, they confirmed that over 124,000 supporters will have the opportunity to see the Lions and the best that New Zealand has to offer.

For the host nation, this sort of mass interest – a first of its kind – will elicit memories of Rugby World Cup 2021 [hosted in 2022] when the Black Ferns triumphed on home soil.

“I mean, it’s a pretty special occasion,” Amy du Plessis said. “Obviously, it’s history – the first time we’re going to do it. If you think about the pinnacle in 15s, we’ve got World Cups, and this is probably second to that.

“After the World Cup [in 2022], we saw how many fans came to our games, and then there was a bit of a drop-off. I think the Lions coming to us will help elevate that again and try and grow a bigger network for us in New Zealand.”

This week’s ‘true test’

This weekend the Black Ferns will face the Red Roses at Allianz Stadium. Almost 60,000 supporters have purchased tickets for the fixture that takes place one day shy of the one-year anniversary of England’s Women’s Rugby World Cup success.

It will also be almost a year since the Black Ferns claimed a bronze medal against France. Demant, Sylvia Brunt, Renee Holmes, Laura Bayfield and Braxton Sorensen-McGee were all try scorers that day as New Zealand beat France 42-26.

In the months since, the Black Ferns have become a different prospect. Now led by Whitney Hansen, the six-time world champions are unbeaten in 2026.

During the calendar year the side have claimed a Pacific Four Series title, the Laurie O’Reilly Cup and started their WXV Global Series campaign with wins against France and Scotland.

England, meanwhile, backed up their Women’s Rugby World Cup triumph with immediate success in the 2026 Guinness Women’s Six Nations and in WXV Global Series action beat the Wallaroos, before their 39-Test winning streak was ended by a 26-26 draw with Canada.

The world’s top two teams are meeting. Not just because that is what the World Rugby rankings say, but because of the body of work that both teams have put together in 2026.

“With where we’re at and where they’re at, I think this is going to be a really true test on who is the most dominant team in the world,” Du Plessis said.

“I think our kicking game has gone a lot better. Our ability to control territory and tempo has gone a lot better.

“The more we can get that and the more games that we get at a higher level will test us. And I think that’s what we need.”

For Saturday’s fixture, the Black Ferns have been buoyed by the return of Kaipo Olsen-Baker to the starting XV after injury. She joins a back-row with the talents of Liana Mikaele-Tu’u and Elinor-Plum King, who has been a breakout star since making her Test debut.

Going into the contest, the Black Ferns know that they are nowhere near the finished product. Just as Hansen’s arrival as the team’s head coach has brought immediate on-field success, this is still only year one of a Women’s Rugby World Cup cycle.

The Lions tour and Women’s Rugby World Cup 2029 are the prizes on the horizon. Getting there is all about the process. Something that starts this weekend in West London, when the Red Roses host the Black Ferns for the first time since September 2024.

“If we can walk away from that game and know that we’ve done everything possible and we’ve taken every single opportunity, then I think regardless of the result, we’ll be satisfied,” Du Plessis said. “But the ultimate is to win the game.”