Black Ferns take on Mauao before Tauranga game

Black Ferns Assistant Coach Wesley Clarke taking an early ocean dip at dawn today. Photos: Rosalie Liddle Crawford.

A pre-dawn ascent of Mauao followed by an ocean dip at Mount Main beach, is how assistant coach Wesley Clarke and other members of the Black Ferns coaching team started their morning in Tauranga today.

The Black Fern players arrived in Tauranga today to prepare for a match on the weekend and up-coming tests against Australia.

The team chose the Mount to train at this week, because of the excellent facilities available and because the location provides a good central mid-point.

They will be preparing for the Game of Three Halves match this weekend at Tauranga Domain.

The Black Ferns will play 40 minutes against the Bay of Plenty Volcanix and 40 minutes against the Auckland Storm team.

Following this, for the third ‘half', the Auckland Storm and Bay of Plenty Volcanix will then play each other.

The Bay of Plenty Volcanix won the 2017 Farah Palmer Cup Championship at Blake Park last October, and this third 'half' game will pit Bay of Plenty against Auckland ahead of their next Farah Palmer Cup season.

The Game of Three Halves match will be held at the Tauranga Domain on Saturday August 11, with kick-off at noon.

The public is invited to come along and enjoy a fun afternoon of footy, with no gate charge.

The Women's Rugby World Cup will be on display during Saturday's games and there will be opportunities for fans to get selfies and autographs with the Black Ferns.

The Black Ferns are also preparing for two test matches against Australia. After training at Mount Maunganui, they will leave for Sydney where they will play the first test match on August 18 at the ANZ Stadium. The second match will be played at Eden Park on August 25. The two matches are double-headers with the All Blacks, with both NZ teams playing the Australian teams.

Arran Hodge, Wesley Clarke, John Haggart, Georgia Milne and Lauren Cournane.

The Black Ferns will be playing for the Laurie O'Reilly Memorial Trophy, which is the equivalent of the Bledisloe Cup for women.

They are the current holders of the trophy, and in fact have always held it.

John Haggart has returned from his role as defence coach at French side Stade Francais to take up a position as assistant coach for the Black Ferns. Formerly he has been the international high performance manager for the Crusaders and Canterbury rugby, and has also been assistant coach of Canterbury.

From Tuesday to Friday, Black Fern players will be out and about training around the Mount, with a captain's run planned for Friday.

Also on Friday, the players will be visiting some local schools. Details on this will be confirmed later this week, however Tauranga Girl's College and Mount Maunganui Intermediate are two of the three schools they plan to visit.

Black Ferns 2018 schedule:

'Game of Three Halves' (v Bay of Plenty and Auckland), Tauranga Domain, Tauranga, August 11

Australia, ANZ Stadium, Sydney, August 18

Australia, Eden Park, Auckland, August 25

USA, Soldier Field, Chicago, November 4

France, Stade Felix Mayol, Toulon, November 9

France, Grenoble, France, November 17

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