'No one in the world has seen': Black Ferns foreshadow World Cup strategy

The Black Ferns have something special in store for 2025, with Ruby Tui foreshadowing an innovative new attacking gameplan the team are yet to unveil.

The reigning world champs have had a rocky time in the international arena since 2022’s world-conquering effort on home soil, but remain confident with the memory of the dramatic turnaround achieved ahead of that recent title.

It was just 12 months prior to the 2022 Rugby World Cup that the Black Ferns had suffered a disastrous tour of Eurpoe, losing four straight Tests against France and England by a total of 116 points.

Parallels draw themselves with the Kiwis’ 2024 campaign yielding historic first-ever losses to both Canada and Ireland. Tui wad adamant a similarly rapid return to competitive form could be achieved this year.

The superstar was full of superlatives for Black Ferns assistant coach Tony Christie in particular, and doubled down on that sentiment when asked where the biggest opportunity for growth is for the team ahead of the World Cup campaign.

“You could put this down to me blowing smoke up him too much, but I think TC’s (Christie) attack area,” Tui responded on the Aotearoa Rugby Pod.

“It’s going to be something new, and some people could be like ‘oh, it’s a bit late to have something new’, but hey, it does work. We had even less time last time.

“So I think the new ideas, the key is that no one in the world has seen them yet. We’ve been working on a couple of things, and obviously, you’ve got to be smart about what you’re releasing.

“There’s lots and lots of moving parts, but I think some of our attack things will be really cool.”

That intriguing insight into the team’s grand plan came after Tui had spoken on the attack architect’s journey and role in the Black Ferns.

“I think TC is an amazing coach and it’s really because he started with FPC, won with Canterbury, went to Matatu, won Aupiki, and he’s come into the Black Ferns, he’s got fresh ideas, he studies other sports.

“The things he’s been educating us on is just super exciting. I’m growing up and to have someone in the environment so refreshing and passionate, it’s crucial.”

Former All Black and co-panelist on the podcast, James Parsons, identified a weakness in the Black Ferns’ game in ’24 as a defensive line that was shrunk too easily, leaving the wingers isolated and overwhelmed when the ball went wide.

Tui acknowledged that as one of two areas the Black Ferns have been working on, outside of the attack. The other was  getting out of their own 22.

“We love to run in New Zealand, we love to have fun and do really cool stuff, but there are times where we do need to be traditional, or smart, play a bit smarter.

“We really want to give people something cool to watch and stuff like that, but there are times, I think, this year where we will look at the picture, I’ll probably have to listen to Lu (Ruahei Demant) a bit more and try and run,” Tui laughed.

“So width, and also that back 22 exit.”