The Wallaroos-Black Ferns contest are always full of meaning but no one defines this more than centre-turned-backrower Siokapesi Palu.
Palu is one of several Wallaroos with New Zealander heritage trying to end the 25-game undefeated streak of the Black Ferns that tracks back to their first encounter in 1994.
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Born in Lower Hutt, just outside of Wellington ‘Pesi’ Palu move to Sydney as a child before moving to Canberra after school.
She is joined in the squad by Auckland-born Trilleen Pomare, with Queensland Reds playmaker and 2023 Rugby Australia Rookie of the Year Carys Dallinger making the switch to Australia less than two years after being involved with the Black Ferns system.
The connection with New Zealand is not lost on the ACT Brumbies skipper as she reflects on Sunday’s game.
“It means everything,” Palu said.
“I took my first breath of life there and I always acknowledge that’s where my family started their opportunity growth but making the move over to Australia, this is a life that has provided so much for me and why it’s always an honour and privilege for me to put on the green and gold.
“…I can actually recall when I debuted (in 2022 against the Black Ferns) looking to the crowd and my mom was crying singing the anthem, the New Zealand National Anthem of course.
“It’s a full, wholesome moment but it’s now understanding that this is where my heart lies but also acknowledging New Zealand is always home.”
Slowly but surely, Palu has converted the family to become Australian supporters as she rose through the ranks.
“We all slowly moved here to Australia and the All Blacks and the Black Ferns jerseys slowly turned into green and gold as they made the move,” Palu said and smiled.
“They’re all Aussies now.”
With the conversion complete, Palu is working on delivering that first win to the Wallaroos as they head to Ballymore on Sunday with a new mindset.
Palu and the squad have worked under renowned mental skills coach David King to solidify the approach of how they face the Kiwis.
King was with the squad at the 2021 Rugby World Cup (played in 2022) and the backrower was embracing the ‘humble arrogance’ the need to take on the Kiwis.
“I think it’s really easy for us to say we’ve never beaten the Black Ferns and submit in defeat but now we’ve got to actually set up with that humble arrogance,” Palu believes.
“We are just like them, our bodies, arms, eyes, hands are exactly the same. It’s about the heart and who wants it more.
“We embrace the underdog title a lot but now I think it’s time to step up because we know we’re move than that and we’re capable of it.
“We talk about being brave and the approach about how we can prepare ourselves off the field. It’s about that initial thought in our brain and how our body follows and I’ve seen such a huge growth in the girls and their off field behaviours and how they’re willing to challenge each other.”
The 64-5 win over Fijiana helped reinforced the mindset they can match it with anyone in the world.
There had been signs under new coach Jo Yapp of a revolutionised Wallaroos style of play but the dominant 80-minute performance was a statement of what they can do if they can back it up in Sunday.
“It was something that we needed in order to build that confidence within our shape and what we’re able to produce,” Palu believes.
“That was the icing on the cake we needed to install confidence in the girls and I know that once we go into this New Zealand game, we can take a lot of the positives from that into here.
“We’ve got to understand we can’t take our foot off the pedal and I think that’s something we saw in the last game with New Zealand. We were in the fight and then it came to a point where we let them slide.
“It’s not trying to understand that we’ve got to be relentless in everything that we do and it takes a full 80 minutes to be switched on from the beginning to the end.
“We have to trust the system and endurance. We know when we stay in the fight for the full 40 and work in our blocks all the way to 80 we can be great. We’ve got to be brave and trust in ourselves, our shape to actually produce it. We’ve got to do that first action, we can’t look at the final outcome without doing that first initial job and moving onto the next.”
