The Kiwi Ferns have marked their 25th anniversary with a convincing 28-8 victory over a spirited Samoa side at Mt Smart Stadium on Saturday.
The star of the show was Autumn Stephens-Daly, who ran in two tries and made one assist as she terrorised the Samoan defence in the only rugby league test to be played in 2020.
The home side opened the scoring inside two minutes through Karli Hansen, after her kick hit the post and fell fortuitously back into her stride for her to cross unimpeded.
Seven minutes later, the Ferns got their second through Honey Hireme. As she fell into touch, Katelyn Vaha'akolo produced a great offload to Hireme, who used her strength to crash over.
Samoa showed great resilience to respond through a strong run from half Ricshay Lemanu, which brought them back into the contest.
A great individual try to Autumn Stephens-Daly continued the momentum for the Kiwis. A huge fend saw Stephens-Daly open to race 50 metres to score under the sticks and take a 16-4 lead into the break.
In the second half, the Kiwi Ferns came out on fire and scored inside a minute, as Stephens-Daly broke the defence and put Vaha'akolo over.
Stephens-Daly continued her strong performance when she got her second for the afternoon, punching on a Samoa mistake to ease over the line.
With five minutes remaining, Crystal Tamarua wrapped up the scoring for the home side, taking advantage of a Samoan brain explosion at the play of the ball to go 40 metres for the try.
Samoa got a consolation try through Leianne Tufuga but it was far too little, too late, as New Zealand came away convincing winners.
