At the end of Black Ferns training, it’s not unusual for six players to remain on the field.
For this group, the session only ends when they’ve completed their kicking drills.
Referred to as the Kicking Club by backs and skills coach Riki Flutey, the group put in work every day of the week outside of game days to hone their craft.
“We train it every day, mate. And the girls are really confident now to pull the trigger when they see the space with the kicking game,” Flutey told the Herald.
The group consists of fullbacks Renee Holmes and Braxton Sorensen-McGee, first five-eighths Ruahei Demant and Kelly Brazier, and halfbacks Risaleaana Pouri-Lane and Maia Joseph.
While the use of their kicking game in open play has been a clear area of growth this year, the payoff has been obvious from the tee during the side’s World Cup campaign. Holmes, the team’s primary goalkicker, has converted 14 of 18 attempts. Sorensen-McGee, who assumed the goalkicking when Holmes was on the bench against Japan, made four of her six shots.
The Black Ferns have made 75% of their conversion attempts through three World Cup clashes, which is an improvement on their stats from earlier in 2025, though with a smaller sample size.
In five outings before the tournament in England, the Black Ferns converted 20 of 37 attempts – penalties and conversions – for a 54% success rate. They used four goal kickers over that span, Demant being the most successful with 10 makes and seven misses.
Sorensen-McGee hadn’t attempted a conversion for the Black Ferns until the World Cup, while Holmes has returned to form from the tee since the start of the tournament after missing more than she made in her two pre-World Cup appearances following her recall to the team.
“We kick every day. The players do have a rejuvenation day in the middle of the week, but the kickers always kick that day as well and just put time into their kicking craft purely for that hour,” Flutey said.
“[Renee] drives all that. My role with her is really just gifting her the time and gifting her the confidence and inspiring her to be the best she can, and she’s definitely performing really well at this stage.”
Flutey has only been part of the Black Ferns’ coaching set-up since April, stepping into the role after Mike Delany left the post late in 2024.
The former England international and British and Irish Lion was back in New Zealand doing some “resource coaching” for New Zealand Rugby in the women’s game, getting around the various hubs and teams to do some kicking skillset work, and the opportunity with the Black Ferns arose from that.
He was officially confirmed in the role of backs and skills coach in April, joining a team who were at the height of their World Cup preparations.
“Having a specialised goal kicker, in-play kicker, just somebody who understands the game and understands the pressure, the hours that need to actually go into that kind of skill has been the best thing,” Holmes said.
“We’ve got a lot of girls in this team that would probably be able to say the same thing. He’s been great. He’s not only an awesome coach, player, he’s an awesome human. He’s done a lot for this team this year, and he’s played a big part in our culture really coming together this year.
“He’s honestly the man, and I’m so grateful to have him here in this space.”
And while the Kicking Club may be required to put in some extra work in training, Flutey said they are rewarded for their efforts with a little end-of-week treat in what has become “a pretty cool little tradition”.
“We see this club being the hardest working positional group in the team because [they’re the] last to leave the field after training because they’ve got to get their kicking reps in,” he said.
“They kick on players’ day off, you know, so we just treat ourselves with a little fizzy drink and a chocolate and shake each other’s hands and thank each other for the efforts that they’ve put in for the week.
“This is on game day minus one. This is on Captain’s Run day that we do that, right at the end of the week. We sit there and have our little fizzy drink, mate, and have our chocolate. So, that’s a pretty cool way to acknowledge each other’s hard mahi.”
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.