'We needed that': Black Ferns take positives from challenging Springbok Women encounter

Black Ferns co-captain Georgia Ponsonby praised the Springbok Women’s first half challenge after her team’s 52-20 win at FNB Stadium.

The six-time world champions had to overcome an emboldened South Africa, who dominated at the scrum early on. Ultimately, Whitney Hansen’s Black Ferns triumphed as South African bodies tired at altitude.

Braxton Sorensen-McGee and Elinor-Plum King’s braces accounted for half of the Black Ferns’ tries, while Chryss Viliko, Maia Joseph, Ma’ama Mo’onia Vaipulu and Amarante Sititi also dotted down.

In a week’s time, New Zealand will start their WXV Global Series campaign against France in Lyon. While in Europe, New Zealand will also play Scotland and England, before returning home to play France three more times.

“Credit to South Africa, they really brought it,” Ponsonby said at full-time. “?They dominated in the set piece, and those scrums, and those mauls. They definitely had a game plan and executed it.

“[A] huge Test for us and we needed that going into what’s going to be a long tour coming up. We’ve got some huge Test matches coming up.”

South Africa can take immense positives from how they approached this fixture. Like last year, they found a way to pose the Black Ferns questions.

A year ago, at Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025, it was relentless physicality. This time around, the Springbok Women posed their biggest questions at the scrum, dominating the set piece in the first half.

As South Africa tired, the Black Ferns’ superior fitness allowed Hansen’s team to find increasing space in attack, eventually opening up an unassailable lead at FNB Stadium.

The Springbok Women will play WXV Global Series fixtures against Wales, Italy and Spain in Europe, before back-to-back home Tests against Ireland in October.

“The girls fought incredibly hard,” Latsha said. “That was a tough encounter. Our defensive sets were tested tremendously. It was nothing short of a physical encounter.

“We challenged at the scrums as well, which is our DNA, which we had worked really hard on this week and we got some reward off of that. What better way to prepare [for the WXV Global Series], than to face one of the best teams in the world?”