Whitney Hansen on Black Ferns facing life without 'influential' Ruahei Demant

Life as Black Ferns head coach has gone swimmingly to date for Whitney Hansen, who remains undefeated in the role after their 28-14 triumph over France in Lyon.

Blues loose-forward Liana Mikaele-Tu’u starred for Hansen’s side, while Mererangi Paul, Mia Anderson, and Justine McGregor also crossed during the Black Ferns’ victory.

Hansen will have to prepare her side for yet another Test match without their inspirational skipper, Ruahei Demant, who continues to miss time with a calf injury.

The experienced playmaker entered their historic encounter with the Springboks Women in Soweto last weekend, before picking up a calf injury that would rule the 31-year-old out of their WXV fixtures against France, Scotland, and England.

Hannah King started the France Test in the No.10 jersey, backing up from the Springboks fixture a week prior, while Maia Joseph, Highlanders head coach Jamie Joseph’s daughter, has started the past three Tests at halfback.

Hansen, reviewing the victory on Weekend Sport with Jason Pine on Newstalk ZB, addressed how the team was adjusting to life without Demant’s experience.

“Yeah, she [Demant] is really influential for us. I think both as a game driver, but just also as a person in the group,” Hansen said post-match.

“We recognised at the start of this year that we needed to grow some other leadership around that, and we couldn’t be reliant on that. And South Africa, ironically, was an example of that.

“What we wanted to provide for Kingy to be able to come out if we were to face moments like this. So that sort of was great timing. But I think one of the really special things about Ruahei is that straight away I thought, look, this is the plan, and then straight away she went to, how does this team be great, and how can I help it?

“And that’s often the question that I get asked from someone who gets selected, and that’s a pretty special thing about this space. So there’s still huge belief that she brings and instils in the group as a leader, although she’s not on the field.

“And I think today was such an awesome occasion to get those minutes for Hannah to drive a team for us, and to have that ability to lead us as a team.”

Hansen is excited about the opportunity to travel to the Northern Hemisphere and play France, Scotland, and England, especially with the challenges they have already faced.

“Yeah, like just our roster in general for this year, we’re super grateful for New Zealand Rugby’s work, [it was] really hard for us to get those games, and I think it’s the same with back to that France test at the end of the year that we had.

“So they’re super excited for that. How we play through those and what we do in terms of consistency, definitely sort of we’ve led into that, and we’ll keep that for that England Test.

The Black Ferns head coach pinpoints this weekend’s Test match against Scotland, at Hive Stadium in Edinburgh, as an opportunity to build more depth.

“And I think the Scotland game gives us a really cool opportunity to be able to potentially give some minutes to those that haven’t had a lot either, while still keeping that consistency.

“So we’re still working through exactly what that looks like. But yeah, I think it will be exciting to see some new blood get some opportunity next weekend as well.”