Black Caps, Black Ferns, Silver Ferns and Māori All Blacks - can sporting week end as excitingly as it started?

It's been a thrilling week in the world of sports for New Zealand - and let's hope that continues when the Māori All Blacks, pictured in training in Rotorua, take on Fiji. Photo / Stephen Parker

take on Fiji. Photo / Stephen Parker 190719sp9.JPG

What a week!

Starting the week with the greatest ODI ever played, New Zealanders were united by a lack of sleep and an abundance of pride for our national cricket team. This is despite the Black Caps not winning their ICC Cricket World Cup final against England - and for the simple fact that our team didn't actually lose the match. The end result as well as the issue of a super over has continued to be one of the biggest topics of sports conversations all week.

Unfortunately for women's rugby, the Black Ferns' success has been overshadowed by that spectacular final cricket match.

In their first campaign of their international test season, the Black Ferns won the Women's Rugby Super Series 2019 returning home from San Diego with the series and retained their number one world ranking. And guess who they beat to win the title? England!

There must be something in the water here because both of the captains of those two successful national teams that gave us the top quality sporting start to the week call Tauranga home - Kane Williamson for the Black Caps and Les Elder for the Black Ferns. Quality leaders.

But let's not forget about the Silver Ferns - they've continued to impress at the Netball World Cup this week.

Netball World Cup 2019, hosted in Liverpool in England, started last Friday and finishes tomorrow. New Zealand opened their world cup campaign with a 64-45 win over Malawi Queens - and thank goodness for that.

We all remember last year's Commonwealth Games, when New Zealand suffered a 53-57 loss to Malawi and failed to medal for the first time. I, like the rest of the country, remember being stunned by that loss and remember wishing Noelene Taurua was in charge and was never snubbed for the role as coach.

Now that she is in charge, the team culture just feels different and let's be honest, a happy squad, with a quality leader, gets results.

It's early days but already the Silver Ferns are showing promise this world cup - also beating Barbados 78-25, Singapore 89-21, Zimbabwe 79-36 and Northern Ireland 77-28. Although they're not unbeaten, a one-point loss to the Australian Diamonds going down 49-50, shows something positive.

Tomorrow morning we head into the semifinals, up against the England Roses - let's hope our female athletes get the better over our English foes in this sport too.

Closer to home, the Māori All Blacks take on Fiji tonight in what can only be described as a redemption match having lost to the Pacific nation 27-10 in Suva last weekend. The Maori All Blacks have played Fiji 30 times with the Māori side recording a 20-8-2 win/loss/draw tally and until last Saturday, the Māori side had not lost to Fiji since 1957. Ouch.

The Maori All Blacks have a home game tonight, though, playing in Rotorua, and securing a win in front of a home crowd will be a great way to help end the sporting week.

Up the ABs, let's go!