The Bay of Plenty Volcanix may be wishing Saturday's Farrah Palmer Cup opener against Canterbury at Tauranga Domain started at the 30 minute mark.

It was around about then that they actually managed to get their hands on the ball, and start to show a few signs of what they're capable of.

Problem is by then they were 31-0 down to the reigning Premiership champions.

It was always going to be a tough initiation to the top level of the competition for the Premiership newbies, but probably a valuable one in terms of getting to grips with the standard required to compete.

And aside from the 5-55 scoreline the Volcanix can fairly say they did enough in the game to show they won't be blown away so easily in their matches to come.

It became apparent from the opening moments Canterbury's pace and power would be a handful for the home side. Straight from the kickoff they were deep in Volcanix territory, and set up camp there for the next half hour.

Halfback Kendra Cocksedge demonstrated why she's the Black Ferns' number one, organising her side superbly, scoring her side's opening try, and looking after the goalkicking. And the whole time showing irrepressible energy.

Before they let the Volcanix get a significant feel of the ball they had added tries to flanker Lucy Jenkins, winger Melanie Puckett, an intercept effort to Estelle Uren who smartly anticipated a pass from Volcanix second five Renee Holmes, and a second for Jenkins.

Renee Holmes distributes to the Volcanix backline.

The arrival of the Bay's Black Ferns loose forward Les Elder, who was always going to come on to lift the team's energy levels at some point but possibly not as early as 30 minutes, had the desired effect.

The home side were finally able to get some time at the right end of the field, retain possession and put some phases together. Elder herself was the beneficiary, crashing over for the try after a sustained spell of pressure deep inside the Canterbury half.

From that point on it was a much more even rugby match. The Volcanix enjoyed closer to parity in territory and possession, and it was only the edge in individual quality Canterbury enjoyed through the backline that enabled them to add to their try tally.

A second Cocksedge try, a breakaway from lightning winger Sam Curtis, and fullback Olivia McGoverne with a double stretched the score out to 55-5.

Volcanix coach Brendon Webby will have been pleased to see his team spend the bulk of the final 10 minutes laying siege to the Canterbury line.

They came within millimetres of a deserved second try too, when replacement back Polly Playle drove to the line and was held a fraction short. She had the presence of mind to lay the ball back for Renee Holmes to gather and attempt to dive over, but she too was held up by the Canterbury defence which never clocked off the job.

Baye Jacob has Canterbury's dangerous halfback Kendra Cocksedge lined up.

Captain Christie Yule was upbeat following the match, giving her team credit for keeping up the effort to the final whistle.

'We brought that intent. We played for the full 80 and that's what we were looking for.

'We knew it was going to be a big challenge against the champs of last year and we tried to bring it to them. All power to them – they dominated today.”

The team move to Matata this Saturday for their next Farrah Palmer Cup assignment against Waikato looking to benefit from the lessons of the Canterbury match.

'I think there's heaps of things we can improve on.

'We still want to take that intensity, keep going forward, keep pushing up and put the pressure on them, keep the ball in hand and get it out to our backs. They're electric so we've got to do that.”