Ruahei Demant (centre) celebrates with her Blues teammates. Photo: Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz
Blues women v Hurricanes Poua
Kick-off: 4:35pm Saturday 5 April
Eden Park, Auckland
Live updates on RNZ Sport
Ruahei Demant is determined to make more history with the Blues women and the Black Ferns in 2025.
The World Cup and Super Rugby Aupiki winner wants to become a back-to-back champion in both tournaments and she is confident the Blues and Black Ferns can do it.
"It's been an awesome season so far for us (Blues women). We've got a goal that we want to be the first in Aupiki to go back to back," Demant said.
Ruahei Demant of the Blues dives to score a try. Photo: Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz
The Blues women suffered their first loss of the season last weekend and while they are guaranteed a place in the final, they are desperate to beat the Hurricanes Poua in their final regular season game this Saturday to seal home advantage for the title decider.
Before the defeat to Matatū, the Blues had been unbeaten this year and first-five come midfielder Demant concedes stopping complacency creeping in is a challenge, but one she is confident they will overcome.
"You're absolutely right. I think for us, even though we've been able to still win our games and sometimes really convincingly, we know that we haven't had a perfect performance, a polished performance, and there's always room for improvement," Demant said.
"Our assistant coach, Carlos (Spencer), he's pretty hard enough on that, always wanting us to to take better options as he says. And so I think that allows us to not let complacency creep in knowing that we haven't had a complete performance yet."
Demant has been impressed by the quality of Super Rugby Aupiki this year, as players try to put their hands up for Black Ferns selection ahead of the 2025 World Cup in England in August and September.
"In general, it's really obvious to see that it is a World Cup year. Players are a lot better conditioned. In addition to that, there's a lot more players that are hungry to put their hands up to go to that pinnacle event, which makes the competition a lot more competitive and a lot more exciting. So that's probably the biggest difference I've noticed from past years to this year."
Ruahei Demant playing for the Black Ferns against Ireland. Photo: Paul Yates / www.photosport.nz
Black Ferns veteran Demant is typically a first-five but has often found herself playing second-five for the Blues and she believes that has helped her add a few strings to her bow.
"There's always room for improvement. For myself, I just want to keep building each week. I've really enjoyed playing at 12, but I also like the challenge of going into 10 as well, because I get to enhance both positions, and put my hand up as a bit of a inside that utility."
Demant reckons there are plenty of young and unheralded players stamping their mark on the competition and knocking on the door of Black Ferns selection.
"Oh, absolutely. For starters, our (Blues) 23 is a really difficult 23 to crack. I know that with everyone being injury free and available for selection, it gives our coaches a real headache at selection time, and really difficult calls to make.
"Even our girls that miss out on the 15, some of the players we have on our bench are real quality players. Some of the younger players that I've been impressed with or the players that have been, a bit more inexperienced to this level of rugby, definitely our fullback, Braxton Sorensen-McGee. Not just on attack, but just how brave she is on defence. She's she's one of the smallest people in our team, one of the lightest people in our team and she never misses a tackle," Demant said.
"Another player that I've been really impressed with is, one of our tight head props, Harono Te Iringa. She used to be a loose forward and have made a transition to the front row, which is no easy feat.
"It's been really exciting to see her grow in the position, there's just so many dark places that you have to go to as a prop. So those are probably the two at the moment that stand out in addition to all the players who have already played at this level before and are continuing to put out amazing performances."
Ayesha Leti-I'iga of New Zealand is tackled by Zoe Aldcroft of England. Photo: photosport
While the Black Ferns will not be named until after the conclusion of Super Rugby Aupiki, Demant is adamant they can bounce back from a tough 2024 and be genuine World Cup contenders.
The Black Ferns suffered two defeats to World No.1 and World Cup hosts England last year, were beaten by Ireland for the first time and lost their Pacific Four title following a defeat to Canada, who also took the World No.2 ranking off them.
Demant is confident there's time for the Black Ferns to get back to the top of the pile.
"I haven't really looked forward too much. I've been focusing on the Aupiki campaign that we're in at the moment. But we had only around a 50 percent win rate last year, and don't even if that's happened before or when the last time was that it happened. It was probably just after Covid, the year before the last World Cup," Demant said.
"So without having been into any camps or spoken to any coaches or players, I know that we were really disappointed with the the standard that we played at last year.
"I guess what's exciting is that there's there's been a a few changes within our coaching staff, within our playing group as well. We know that we've got a lot of work to do and while there's not a lot of time, there's still heaps of time. That's probably one thing that the last two World Cup campaigns taught us," Demant said.
"I'm actually looking forward to finishing Aupiki well and then going into the Pacific Four (with the Black Ferns against Canada, the US and Australia) and being real competitive in that campaign and building some really good momentum heading into the World Cup."
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