Whitney Hansen identifies must-fix areas before Canada test

Convincing, but not perfect for the Black Ferns against the USA in Sacramento on Sunday, where new head coach Whitney Hansen kickstarted her reign with a 48-15 victory.

It was the first Test match for the Black Ferns under Hansen, and their first chance to play a competitive outing since last year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup in England, where they finished third.

The Pacific Four Series opener had yellow cards, incredible kick-and-chase tries, and a number of solid performances, but Hansen is keen to see her team progress this weekend against Canada.

Canada also started their 2026 international season with a victory, where they kept the Wallaroos scoreless in a weather-affected contest.

“Yeah, we did it well in patches, and there were some places that we didn’t. But you can see it’s exciting when we when we do get up,” Hansen told media from California.

“I think we were really excited in the first half of what was coming, and you could see it there with those couple of errors and we’ve talked about it all week.

“Like this whole half the year around the fact that across this campaign, we may not be as clinical as what we’re going to need to be in the future because we’re coming off the back of no rugby and a training camp.

“So that’s always a tricky one to test as much as you can to try and train that. So we always had real confidence in how we wanted to play, and we knew it was coming in that first half.

“We just needed to be a little bit more deliberate, particularly at the breakdown, to allow us to do that and build pressure and build the phases and finish.”

The Black Ferns played large parts of their clash against the USA with 14 players on the field, due to a number of yellow cards across the 80 minutes.

Liana Mikaele-Tu’u spent ten minutes on the sideline for a high shot on Kathryn Treder, Tanya Kalounivale, was red carded for an illegal cleanout, and reserve hooker Vici-Rose-Green entered the side of the ruck close to the line.

When asked about the ill-discipline from her side, the daughter of Steve Hansen said that there was a clear focus to improve on the discipline after last year’s issues at the Rugby World Cup.

“Yeah, look, we know coming off the back World Cup, that discipline was an issue in this space, and we’re a bit disappointed in what that looked like today as well.

“Just wasn’t good enough. It’s probably as simple as that. I think we’re responding well to what the messaging is, and to change that, but we’ll take that into training next week too, and be better.”