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The Wallaroos were hopeful they had closed the big gap on the Black Ferns.
Instead, that gap grew further into a yawning chasm on Sunday at Ballymore as New Zealand delivered a 62-0 shutout in the second O’Reilly Cup Test.
It was the third largest winning margin between the trans-Tasman rivals and came after the world champions had won the previous encounter 67-19 in May.
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Katelyn Vahaakolo of the Black Ferns celebrates with teammates after scoring a try. Getty
Australia have never beaten the Black Ferns in 27 attempts and Wallaroos coach Jo Yapp admitted that history was daunting for her players.
“I think it’s tough, isn’t it, when you’re coming in against a team that you’ve never beaten,” Yapp told Stan Sport after the Ballymore bloodbath.
“So mentally that’s hard and it’s trying to just build the belief and the confidence within the squad that they can. Because they didn’t play anywhere near what we’ve seen in training and what we saw last week and that has to be a mental thing.”
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Australia thrashed Fiji 64-5 in Sydney last weekend with winger Desiree Miller scoring a record equalling four tries.
This time it was Kiwi flyer Katelyn Vahaakolo running amok with four tries while centre Sylvia Brunt was again outstanding for the tourists.
Worryingly, the Wallaroos are not showing tangible signs of progress under former England halfback Yapp, the team’s first fulltime professional coach.
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They are 1-4 this season having also lost to Canada and the United States in May.
“Just really disappointed because it just wasn’t a reflection of how we’ve been training and also how we played last week,” Yapp said.
“We kind of went within ourselves as a squad and we didn’t really throw a punch like we wanted to. So just generally disappointed and a lot of learnings to take away. We didn’t have the same level of energy as we had last week against Fiji.
Jo Yapp of the Wallaroos speaks to players after their defeat. Getty
“We just seemed to be quite passive in the collision area and they won the collision both sides of the ball, which is making it really hard for us.”
The Wallaroos will have some time off before preparing for away Tests against Ireland and Wales and then the WXV 2 in South Africa in September-October.
Yapp was adamant there were some green shoots to cling onto.
Katelyn Vahaakolo of the Black Ferns gathers the ball before scoring a try. Getty
“That’s why it’s frustrating with the result today because actually we’ve seen loads of in this squad,” she said.
“We’ve seen growth off field, we’ve seen growth on field. And you’ve only got to look at the data around the GPS. The fitness levels are increasing, the leadership is getting so much stronger and those high performance behaviours that we’re now seeing from the girls.
“There is loads of progress. It just didn’t show in today’s result.”
NEW ZEALAND 62 (Vahaakolo 4, Ponsonby, Sae, Tui, Brunt, Lolohea tries, penalty try; Holmes 5 con) AUSTRALIA 0
