Reactions from New Zealand Coach Wayne Smith and Captain Ruahei Demant following their 65-12 win against Wales at Waitakere Stadium on 16 October.
PLUS reactions from Wales coach Ioan Cunningham and captain Siwan Lillicrap following their 56-12 loss against New Zealand at Waitakere Stadium on 16 October.
SEE:
- New Zealand coach Wayne Smith speaks after his side’s 56-12 win against Wales in their second pool match.
- New Zealand captain Ruahei Demant speaks after her side’s 56-12 win against Wales in their second pool match.
- Wales coach Ioan Cunningham speaks after his side’s 56-12 loss against New Zealand in their second pool match.
- Wales captain Siwan Lillicrap speaks after her side’s 56-12 loss against New Zealand in their second pool match.
https://youtu.be/giCNNkx6WqA
Reaction from New Zealand coach Wayne Smith, captain Ruahei Demant, Ruby Tui and Charmaine McMenamin following their 65-12 win against Wales at Waitakere Stadium on 16 October.
HEAD COACH WAYNE SMITH
“I thought the defence was outstanding, it was a big step up from last week. The attack, particularly the counterattack was really exiting. We have some work to do up front, their pack played well and put us under pressure. You always have something to work on, but we will get back on the grind this week.”
On preparing for this game
“This game is about how you prepare the accountability for being responsible for your own preparation. If you have 23 who have prepared really well then you get good performances. We are getting there. We have 32 women who are worthy of starts, so they will get starts.
“It’s my first time coaching a women’s team, there is a difference. I am struggling with the pregame prep and what it looks like compared to the years I had with the All Blacks. The men are more inside themselves and quieter, more detailed in terms of their individual preparation. The women love it, I can see why they love it. There is a lot of joy in what they do, they dance, and they sing. I am learning to love that; I find it a bit difficult at times on the bus. I did threaten I would take my own car to the next game but it’s great to see people absolutely loving what they do.”
On retiring after this Rugby World Cup
“Rugby has always been my life since I was five years old, weather I have been a coach or a club player, it’s something I have loved all my life. This will be it for me, I will retire after this permanently. What a way to finish, this is a lot of fun.”
On playing Wales
“I really felt for them. They have a really good pack. I think the game next week against Australia will be a cracker, it will be worth coming to.
“Scotland probably should have beaten Wales last week, that will be tough up front.”
On if we have seen the best of the Black Ferns yet
“No, you haven’t.”
“We cannot play like the other teams; we are trying to play like us. We are trying to be true to our roots and our DNA and it’s giving the girls a lot of fun.”
PLAYER OF THE MATCH RUAHEI DEMANT
On the game
“I am so proud of the way we started that game, compared to the way we started the previous game. I am proud of the way that we prepared mentally throughout the week, the mindset we showed on the field to show courage, be brave and play the pitchers in front of us.
“Right from the start we talked about being really physical and I think that is what we did. We identified where the space was, but credit to them the line speed was fast. We did well to identify where the other spaces were opening up, especially in the inside. You saw Portia bust through the middle there from an inside ball. We tried to go through the middle round the ruck as well. The way we adapt is really powerful.
“It’s exciting, its kind of funny because you are set for the next phase and the next minute someone breaks through and you are caught behind a gain line trying to catch up.”
On her team
“I am really grateful that those girls are my teammates, and I don’t have to tackle them.
“For some of our forwards, who are even more powerful, a lot of people might think the style of game we play is fast and free and may seem quite unstructured but you can’t play that game without being physical and so you need a really good pack to take you forward so that you can create those opportunities, so it is very fun.
“We gave away a lot of penalties, that allowed Wales the kick for the corner and try and maul us and they did well to get a couple of tries out of that. We have a short turn around this week, so there is massive individual responsibility to do our homework to ensure that doesn’t happen next week.”
On penalty’s
“I know we will fix it up, I trust the girls and I trust the way we will play and train.”
On Scotland
“They had a pretty close game against Wales last week. I’ve personally never played them but a few of the girls have. We haven’t done too much scouting on them yet, we have been focusing on this game – but I am assuming they will bring the same intent.”
On playing other teams
“I think today was my second time playing Wales, but the first time in a black jersey. Playing different teams is cool, you get different pictures, different challenges, different strengths and they expose different weaknesses in our team which only makes us better. It’s really cool meeting the players, making friends, that’s why I play to make friends and they are often connections that last a lifetime.
“You get 15, 23 or even 30 girls turning up to training and the way you have each others back on the field builds a different type of trust. The friends you make in footy are friends for life. It doesn’t matter where you go in the world, you always have these connections that transcend time and distance.”
PLAYER RUBY TUI
On the score and the bonus points
“We keep being asked about the score, the bonus points but honestly, I am focusing on nothing else but my job. I know that will take care of itself if we do the little things right. We are a new team; I am not going to shy away from that. Not happy with a couple of things, but that is what I will focus on.”
On the coach
“We are all fighting for our position in that team, Smithy is very straight up about what he wants, which is forcing us all to grow. Being coached by Smithy has transformed us as players, we have never had the kind of insights we are having, it is exciting where we can go. It is hitting different, it’s cool this tournament.”
On the game
“There were a couple of momentum shifts we were not happy about, but it was hectic running around at fullback.
“I have complete trust in my team, Portia came up to me and said “sis I back you” It means heaps coming from my best mate. I am having the time of my life at this tournament.”
On the goal
“We want to be courageous, to be honest we just want to make it an entertaining sport. We want people to watch women’s rugby and be like oh that was cool. Hopefully it comes off and we are not full of it.”
CHARMAINE MCMEANAMIN
“This is a way our family and friends show their support here, it’s a pacific island thing. I had my 30th game, within the Black Fern’s we don’t play many test matches, I debuted in 2013 and it’s taken me this long to get here.”
“For me every game I cherish, you never know when it will be your last.”
“As a team we have a lot to work on, Wales gave us a good go today and should be proud of their efforts. Obviously, we have a lot to do on our set piece.”
“We are trying to strive for greatness, to do that we have to have honest conversations. Even though there were glimpses of brilliance out there we can get better, it’s just in our nature.”
On motivation
“We take it game by game; with Scotland we will want to fix up our errors and put out a better performance.
“With the Addition of the new coaches they have looked at the depth of the squad. The depth is incredible, its going to take the whole squad to get through a World Cup. You don’t know what’s going to happen with injury and what not.”
Reaction from Wales coach Ioan Cunningham and captain Siwan Lillicrap following their 56-12 loss against New Zealand at Waitakere Stadium on 16 October.
HEAD COACH IOAN CUNNINGHAM
On the game
“I am extremely proud of the group, we always put pride in our performance, I was extremely pleased with how our forwards went today. We missed a couple of opportunities that we could have scored a few more tries, but with the Black Ferns being so lethal, you turn the ball over they run it from 60 and you have gone from being 5 meters out from their try line to under the sticks. That is something we need to dust ourselves off from quickly and reset.”
On the opponent
“We knew from watching them they had a great offload game. They keep the ball alive. They were smart in their approach, early on they went through us. They picked with their forwards early which narrowed our defense and then kicked smartly behind us. Obviously, the momentum built, and they got a few tries in.
“I was still pleased and proud of the girls how we worked our way back in the game. We used our set piece as a weapon, which gave us penalties and territory, that’s something we will be building on.
“Before you know it, you are back in your own 22 scrambling hard to keep them out.”
On the learnings
“The players gained a huge amount of experience and learnings. Firstly, to see the intensity they play at, the ambition they have. It gives us belief that we can go after sides like this, especially up front if we stick to our structures and show that belief, we can create opportunities against these teams.
“There were some golden opportunities there for us today, some of them we will look at when we review this game.”
On playing Australia
“What a game next week. This is why we play the game, we want to play these big games. We will be challenging the girls to dust themselves off quickly, recover quickly and get back on the horse getting ready for next week’s challenge which will be a tough one.
“They will be physical; they are a physical side that comes straight at you. It’s something we have to match next week. They have great athletes as well. They have the sevens girls who play with width.”
On Welsh support
“We love seeing the red in the crowd, hearing the noise. Lots of families are over here supporting the girls which is great for us.”
CAPTAIN SIWAN LILLICRAP
On the game
“Our set-piece was really dominant today. Our pack did exceptionally well in that area. Line out’s, driving mauls, scrums there was a lot of penalties there. We didn’t capitalise on the opportunities in that area and didn’t front up physically enough in that area. Credit to the Black Fern’s they put everything at us.
“They scored a couple of quick tries again in that first half, and in the same second half we let them score two tries which isn’t the way we wanted to start.
“They pounced on our mistakes, they have deadly wingers that can create stuff from nothing. They have deadly players all around the park, with great attacking ability.”
On penalty’s
“To give away only that little penalty’s allows you to be in the game, we don’t think the score reflected that. That has been a work on this week and we will keep that discipline ahead of Australia.
“It’s a huge honour to play New Zealand, the Black Ferns are a credit to women’s rugby, and I wish them all the best for the tournament.”
On work ons
“We need to use our opportunities. Our accuracy is there in our set piece but it’s the decision making. We are creating opportunities, but we aren’t taking them.
“We have a six day turn around before we face Australia, so we need to look at our process. The next few days are going to be crucial to us. We have to dust ourselves off pretty sharpish now.”
On the next game
“Don’t write us off, we are fighting for those quarter final spaces it’s a huge game next week and we will recover quickly and we will move forward to that game quickly. We are seeing glimpses of what this side is capable of, we haven’t seen a rounded performance yet. We are new in the journey, we are new to professional rugby, we have been working hard and I think you can see that.”
SIONED HARRIES
On the positives
“I think we can take positives from it. The score line doesn’t reflect elements of the game, we dominated them in set piece, especially in line outs and scrums. We set good platforms at times, but it comes back to our execution. We saw that against Scotland in the second half. We had great belief in ourselves, but we will take the positives from the set piece and the platforms we created but work on the execution and being clinical.”
On the next game
“It’s about staying focused. We will have a quick turnaround; they are quick fixes. For us Australia is a must win, I think it will be a really good game.”
