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'I'm excited': Black Ferns remain positive despite draw against Canada
By Henry Lee
After 83 minutes of Test match rugby, the Black Ferns and Canada couldn’t be separated in what was a tight matchup in Christchurch on Saturday afternoon.
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The Black Ferns had their opportunities and got the chance to win it at the death, as a Ruahei Demant conversion from the sideline drifted wide.
Canada was superb in coming from behind multiple times during the match, responding well every time they conceded points.
Demant, who captained the Black Ferns in Christchurch, was proud of how her team used their instincts in the final stages, when they decided to tap and go close to the line.
“We’re a team that wants to be clinical, but we’re also a team that plays with a lot of courage, and that’s exactly what that moment was, to have the courage to see space and play to that space,” Demant told media after the match in Christchurch.
“I think that’s what it says about our team. We can be clinical, but we also can be really brave, and that’s really hard to do.”
Demant believes that the future of the Black Ferns is in good hands, as the team feel like they are heading in the right direction going into the Women’s Rugby World Cup later this year.
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“I’m still lost for words, I’m really proud of the week that we had and the preparation that we had, we created so many opportunities today,” Demant said.
“And I guess if we shifted that ball one more pass, if all went to hand, it would have been a different score, and so I’m excited at the evolution of our game and how adaptable we can be.”
Black Ferns head coach Allan Bunting backs up what his captain said, putting belief and trust in the way the team is playing going forward.
“I think at this point, we are where we need to be, and just seeing the potential in our games here. For me, it is exciting, and some of the stuff we’ve been working on and around our kicking game was today was really impressive,” Bunting said to media post-match in Christchurch.
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“As we keep playing, moving and getting used to the timing and getting those last passes away, I’m excited about the future. Today, the grit from our ladies and the goal line defence at the end, and then probably having a plan around getting the ball back from a restart.
“I don’t know how many phases it was to hold on to the ball and show patience and be really accurate around the breakdown, they had to be really accurate on to finish those points, that’s all the attributes that I see.”
The Black Ferns have been hit with an injury blow in the loose forwards, with Sevens star Dhys Faleafaga being ruled out for the rest of 2025, including the World Cup at the end of the year.
Bunting has previously talked about integrating the Sevens players into the matchday 23, something the head coach will think about before they take on USA.
“Look, the coaches will have a chat and discuss that, but for now we just want to sort of celebrate this game and be ready for next week.”
The Black Ferns take on USA at North Harbour Stadium in Albany on Saturday afternoon at 3:35 pm, in the last game of the Pacific Four Series for 2025.
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If I was a BF I would be concerned, just salvaging a last minute draw in a home match against a Canadian team without Sophie de Goode.
BFs have to improve their forwards otherwise if Canada don’t put them away at WC, England or France will. Although Canada seem to be forward dominated, England and France are not and can score from anywhere.
Brst improve your goalkicking. Nearly.lost that last game.
The BFs need to improve on Ball retention when taking the ball into contact be it poor skills or isolated. Too many turnovers & some of the kicking wasn’t top draw either. Canada’s try in the 64th min to take them out to 22-17 was a result of Demant kicking downfield as opposed to finding touch allowing Canada to score without a finger being laid on any Canadian player by going wide & score ‘unopposed’ 3 passes later. And the BFs were lucky that Canada missed a fairly easy conversion having scored to take them to 27-22. The BFs have plenty of ‘work ons’…
Why despite? 3 plays 2 and gets a draw . That’s a result but not for Canada.
Prior to the match, the teams were separated by one third of a point in the World Rugby rankings. The Ferns would have been expected to win narrowly on home soil - the rankings system treats the home team as having a 3-ranking point “advantage”, based on the analysis of previous games that was used to build the ranking system.
If you look at the rankings today compared to last week, Canada are now 0.8 points ahead in the rankings - so they took 0.4 points off NZ. I think they’d regard that as a bit of a result.
All in all, the performance matters much more than the ranking points at this stage. Canada and New Zealand will both have come away from the game with work-ons. Ultimately it was a clash of styles: Canada’s forward power against the Ferns’ pace and handling in the backs. Either is enough to overwhelm most teams, though France will feel they have a chance against either, and I think England will be confident that they can match the strengths of both teams.
The BFs expect to beat Canada, especially at home. Now the Canadians expect to beat the BFs and all but did despite playing away.
yeah, we are the world champions despite the fact that France should have knocked us out of the semis at the last RWC and despite the fact that Canada beat us last time we played them.