The Kiwi Ferns’ challenging Pacific Championships campaign has ended with a 40-8 defeat to the Jillaroos in the final in Sydney.
A week after Australia claimed a hard-fought 10-4 win over New Zealand at Eden Park, another tight contest was expected, however, it was anything but as the Jillaroos reaffirmed their status as the best side in the world ahead of next year’s Rugby League World Cup.
New Zealand went into the contest wanting to reduce their errors, something which has hurt them all year, and while there was a massive improvement, they still couldn’t compete with the Jillaroos, who ran in seven tries – despite their 65% completion rate.
The result caps off a tough year for New Zealand, who opened their campaign with a come-from-behind 22-20 win over Fetu Samoa before last week’s battle against Australia, where they were their own worst enemies as they had numerous chances to snatch victory.
But the Jillaroos were simply too good in the final, led by their back five, who were responsible for three of their tries, with every player running over 100m.
Kiwi Ferns playmaker Tyla King said the defeat hurt.
“Pretty gutted,” King told Sky Sport. ”We come out here and tried to give it our all and that scoreline I guess doesn’t represent how hard we’ve worked these last three four weeks.
“I know we’ll take a lot from this game though. The girls will regroup after this and then yeah, come back better next time.”
The Jillaroos have now won their last four tests against the Kiwi Ferns and the margin of victory was their largest over New Zealand since the 2022 World Cup final in England.
Coach Ricky Henry made a late switch to his side, with King promoted to the starting XIII for her first match of the season and Ash Quinlan dropping back to the interchange.
New Zealand made a strong start to the contest as they looked to play with intent, but it was the Jillaroos who would open the scoring when Olivia Kernick beat two defenders to crash over under the posts after just three minutes.
That laid the platform for the rest of the afternoon as Australia doubled their lead when Julia Robinson jumped high in the air to catch a Jesse Southwell crossfield kick and score their second.
Quinlan had just come on the field but was immediately sent to the sin bin for a professional foul when she held down Keilee Joseph, who was attempting a quick play-the-ball and the Jillaroos immediately capitalised on the one-player advantage when Joseph found her way over the line.
The Kiwi Ferns came close to getting back into the match but Abigail Roache was stopped metres from the line and in the ensuing set, the Jillaroos went the length of the field to score their fourth through Jessica Sergis to take a 24-0 lead into the break.
It was the fourth consecutive match dating back to last year’s final that New Zealand failed to score a point in the first half.
The Ferns made a strong start to the second half when Shanice Parker finished off a well-worked play in the corner, but any thought of a comeback ended with 20 minutes remaining when Tamika Upton scored their fifth of the match.
The Kiwi Ferns did hit back through Tysha Ikenasio, who claimed her first test try, but they had to finish the match with 12 players as Ivana Lauitiiti was sin-binned for a hip-drop tackle.
Australia put the icing on the cake with prop Ellie Johnston and Robinson both scoring in the final five minutes to cap off a memorable campaign as they claimed back-to-back titles.
Ben Francis is an Auckland-based reporter for the New Zealand Herald who covers breaking sports news.