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The Black Ferns' youth factor kicking in ahead of World Cup
By Ned Lester
There’s a lot of youth in the Black Ferns’ Rugby World Cup squad unveiled in Wellington last week, and while that spells risk in the form of inexperience, the benefits are being deeply felt in the playing group.
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10 of the 33 players selected by Director of Rugby Allan Bunting for the showpiece tournament are 23 or younger, and nine have fewer than 10 Test caps. Word from within camp is the newcomers are bringing plenty of energy to complement the cool-headed veterans.
One of said veterans is team co-captain Ruahei Demant, whose efforts in the Black Ferns’ 2022 World Cup-winning run earned her Player of the Year honours at the World Rugby Awards.
The 30-year-old playmaker now boasts 45 Test caps, making her the most experienced member of New Zealand’s World Cup squad. Title favourites, England, have named 13 players in their World Cup squad with more Test experience than Demant.
However, instead of feeling any additional pressure from having to lead a younger, less experienced group, Demant was full of praise for the influence her rising stars are having in the environment.
“I think those are players who, in some cases, are even more important than the players who have been there, done it before and know what to expect,” she told Jason Pine of Newstalk ZB at the squad announcement event.
“I think of players like young Vei (Veisinia Mahutariki-Fakalelu), one of the new props within our team, who hasn’t played many Tests, and she reminds me of many of us who experienced our first World Cup back in 2022, and just the excitement that we had walking towards anything. Nothing was seen as pressure because it was a privileged pressure, and we flip that into enjoyment.
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“And that’s what I see when I look at my teammates who are inexperienced when it comes to World Cups, they have that youthful enthusiasm and welcome and embrace every challenge as an opportunity and as something to be celebrated.
“So it’s extremely important and one of our values of joy, and those players bring joy to those moments where some of us have experienced it before and kind of remind us what it’s like and how it should feel.”
New Zealand has slipped to third place in the world rankings as the defending world champions, but the World Cup draw still has them on the right side of the playoff bracket to meet England for a rematch in the final, should each nation make it.
While some key losses have stung the Kiwis in recent seasons, Demant says her side are timing their run-up.
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“I think the beauty of the World Cup is that you kind of want to peak at the right time. I have full confidence and trust in our team that we will be exactly where we need to be when we need to be there.”