Canterbury Development side providing opportunities to more players and coaches

The Canterbury Development side is helping to provide a number of new opportunities for female players and coaches, including an all female management team containing a number of familiar faces.

Over the first couple of weeks of the Farah Palmer Cup, presented by Bunnings Warehouse, with the 10 Black Ferns in the Canterbury squad absent due to the Pacific Four series in Canada, 14 players joined the FPC squad to provide cover in a number of important positions, as well as learning from the opportunity to be a part of the high performance squad.

Since then, the Development squad has entered into their own series of games, firstly against Otago Development, winning 74-0, and over last weekend, beating the Southland Hinds 41-5.

An integral part of this year’s Development side is the all-female management team.

Led by Head Coach Liz Worthington, who is also a coaching intern with the Farah Palmer Cup side, the coaching team also includes Kendra Cocksedge, taking on her first coaching role as the Backs Coach, and Melissa Ruscoe, who is taking the forwards.

Also supporting the team is Strength & Conditioning Coach Sophie Glass, Manager Heather Algar and Physios Anna Cotterrell and Olivia Adam.