Rugby: Black Ferns want NPC restored to stay strong

Melissa Ruscoe, captain of the New Zealand Black Ferns holds the trophy with her nephew Logan Dear. Photo / Getty Images

World Cup-winning Black Ferns skipper Melissa Ruscoe yesterday urged rugby bosses to restore the national provincial championship to help to keep the women's game strong in New Zealand.

Ruscoe and her teammates flew into Auckland clutching the trophy that New Zealand have now won four times in a row going back to 1998.

The Black Ferns had gone into the tournament cold, their last test having been back in November.

But they made light of their lack of match play with an unbeaten run to the final on Monday morning, when they got past hosts and pre-tournament favourites England 13-10 despite having three players sinbinned.

About 50 supporters were at Auckland airport to greet the team, who were welcomed home with a haka.

Ruscoe, who was also part of the Black Ferns' triumph at the previous tournament in 2006, said the victory over England at The Stoop in London was still sinking in.

It had become more real than a couple of days ago, but it was still "unbelievable".

"I can't put into words how much it means to all the girls and the management to go over there against some pretty tough competition and come away with it again," she said.

But the flanker also warned that the rest of the world was catching up and improvements were needed in the game in New Zealand, including the reinstatement of the NPC, which was cancelled this year.

"I think definitely the NPC has to come back," she said. "When we play some of the countries over there, we know the NPC level is a high standard, and we need that for women's rugby in this country."

Ruscoe is one of seven Cantabrians in the squad and the final was played 48 hours after the earthquake that struck the province on Saturday morning.

"We were fully aware of it," she said. "I got a text about what would have been five o'clock in the morning here, so I knew something was definitely up. We're just thankful that families and friends are okay. Houses and property may be damaged, but everyone's okay."

As for what the Black Ferns could teach their male counterparts about winning a World Cup, Ruscoe replied diplomatically: "The All Blacks are looking fantastic from the Tri-Nations and I'm sure they'll be raring to go next year."

Coach Brian Evans gave his players plenty of kudos, saying they played "sublimely at times" during their five matches and their success was all the more impressive given they had had only club rugby as build-up.

Evans also called for the NPC to be restored.

"There's no competition for the players to develop and what keeps us strong to a certain extent is players playing in tough competitions over a period of time," he said.

"Without it, (a) younger players may not want to play because there's no representative team and (b) our playing levels are going to plummet."

Evans said the New Zealand Rugby Union had said the issue would be reviewed and it was now a case of waiting to see what happened.

"You just have to decide where the women's game stands and the value you place on it," he said. "This is awesome and everyone wants to celebrate it," he said of the World Cup victory, "but if we take it for granted, it won't happen."

- NZPA