The Laurie O'Reilly Cup is the trophy competed for by the

women's rugby union Women's rugby union is a full contact team sport based on running with the ball in hand. The same laws are used in men's rugby union with the same sized pitch and same equipment. Rugby was originally a men's sport, and women's rugby has become p ...

teams of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. The two nations met annually between 1994 and 1998, with New Zealand winning all games, often by significant margins, as a result of which the series fell into abeyance, but was revived in 2007.

History

The Cup is named in honour of Laurie O’Reilly, New Zealand's first women's Selector and National coach who died in 1998. It was formerly known as the Laurie O'Reilly Memorial Trophy. It has been contested between

and

since its inception in 1994. The

Black Ferns The New Zealand women's rugby union team, called the Black Ferns, represents New Zealand in women's international rugby union, which is regarded as the country's national sport. The team has won six out of nine Women's Rugby World Cup tournamen ...

has won every fixture so far and are the current holders of the O’Reilly Cup with a total of 17 wins. In 2018, the

and the

Wallaroos The Australia women's national rugby union team, also known as the Wallaroos, has competed at all Women's Rugby World Cups since 1998, with their best result finishing in third place in 2010. Australian women have been playing rugby since the ...

played both Tests as curtain-raisers to both Bledisloe Cup Tests in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

and

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

. The crowd at the end of both women's Tests swelled to about 28,000. The women's double-header concept was deemed as a success by NZR CEO

Steve Tew Stephen John Tew (born ) is a New Zealand sports administrator. He was the chief executive officer of New Zealand Rugby from 2008 to 2019. Early life and family Tew attended college at Hutt Valley High School in Lower Hutt and then graduated fr ...

who is open to repeating the concept. For the equivalent match at

Eden Park Eden Park is New Zealand's largest sports stadium, with a capacity of 50,000. Located in central Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, it is three kilometres southwest of the CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount Eden and King ...

in 2016, also before the men's clash, the crowd size peaked at 12,500. In 2020, All planned test matches for the

were cancelled due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, as was the September tour to New Zealand in 2021. After a two year absence due to the pandemic, it was confirmed that the competition would return. The Black Ferns hosted the first test and the Wallaroos the second test. The second match was played as a curtain raiser to the

Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and so ...

and

Springboks The South Africa national rugby union team, commonly known as the Springboks (colloquially the Boks, Bokke or Amabokoboko), is the country's national team governed by the South African Rugby Union. The Springboks play in green and gold jersey ...

test in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

. The

won the first test in Christchurch and retained the O'Reilly Cup. They then won the series after winning the second test.

Results

Matches

References

{{New Zealand women's national rugby union team International women's rugby union competitions hosted by Australia International women's rugby union competitions hosted by New Zealand Recurring sporting events established in 1994 Australia women's national rugby union team New Zealand women's national rugby union team Rugby union international rivalry trophies 1994 establishments in Australia 1994 establishments in New Zealand Women's rugby union competitions in Oceania for national teams

History

Results

Matches

See also

References