Holmes impresses in Wallaroos whitewash

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Gisborne’s Renee Holmes underlined her importance to the “new-era” Black Ferns with a strong performance in a 50-0 whitewash of Australia in Brisbane on Thursday night.

The Wallaroos had no answer to the world champions in their opening clash of the Pacific Four Series which also involves Canada and the United States.

The Black Ferns ran in eight tries in their first match under new head coach Allan Bunting and maintained their 100 percent win record over Australia .

Fullback Holmes was impressive and looks set to play an important role for the Ferns.

She kicked four conversions, her defence was solid and her attack typically dangerous.

The Black Ferns, however, won’t be getting carried away with such an emphatic first-up victory.  They made a large number of handling errors which they could not afford to commit against stronger sides such as England, France and Canada.

Australia were poor on defence and at the breakdown and gave the home fans — in what was a record crowd for a Wallaroos home game — little to cheer about.

Bunting has made no secret of his team’s desire to play their natural attacking game, and Thursday’s clash — which was also the first transtasman game for the O’Reilly Cup — supported that.

The Ferns looked to keep the ball alive at all times and their dominance at the breakdown gave them momentum they converted to points from the 11th minute when front-rower Tanya Kalounivale scored their first try.

Impressive teenage midfielder Sylvia Brunt and winger Mererangi Paul scored doubles for the Ferns, who featured three debutantes and another three newcomers on the bench.

Brunt,  19, was player of the match while replacement Iritana Hohaia scored a try on debut.

Gisborne’s Kelsey Teneti is in the 2023 Black Ferns squad but the midfield back was not named in the 23 for Thursday’s game.

Both sides are heading to Canada for the rest of the Pacific Four Series.

New Zealand play the hosts on July 9 and the United States on July 15. All games are at TD Place Stadium in Ottawa.

The top three sides in the series qualify for the inaugural WXV 1 tournament being held in New Zealand between October 20 and November 4.

England, France and Wales have already secured places at the tournament to be held in Wellington, Dunedin and Auckland.

The second O’Reilly Cup match is in Hamilton on September 30.