The 2022 Laurie O'Reilly Cup was the 13th edition of the competition. The matches were played on 20 and 27 August, with both Australia and New Zealand hosting one match each. After a two-year absence due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, it was confirmed that the competition would return. The first test was played in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

at the

Orangetheory Stadium Rugby League Park is a sports stadium in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is currently known for sponsorship reasons as Apollo Projects Stadium, and non-commercially as Christchurch Stadium. The stadium was originally known as the Addington Sho ...

on 20 August 2022. The second test was played in 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 som ...

and

Springboks The South Africa national rugby union team, commonly known as the Springboks (colloquially the Boks, Bokke or Amabhokobhoko) 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 list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

on 27 August 2022. 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 tour ...

won the first test in Christchurch with an overwhelming 52–5 score and retained the O'Reilly Cup. They won the series after winning the second test in a hard-fought match, the game ended 14–22.

Table

Fixtures

First match

Notes: * Awhina Tangen-Wainohu and Tyla Nathan-Wong of the

, and Bree-Anna Cheatham (Australia) made their international debuts. * Charmaine McMenamin (New Zealand) returns for her first test match since 2019. *New Zealand win their 21st test match against the Wallaroos. *New Zealand and Australia haven't played for the O’Reilly Cup since 2019.

Second match

Notes: *This will be the 22nd Test between New Zealand and Australia, the Black Ferns have won every Test between the nations. * Ariana Bayler (New Zealand) gets her first start at Scrum-half, her previous four Tests were off the bench. * Grace Steinmetz made her test debut, while Santo Taumata made her international debut for the

. * Siokapesi Palu and Bienne Terita made their international debuts for the Wallaroos.

Squads

Australia

On 2 August, head coach Jay Tregonning named a 32-player squad for the 2022 Laurie O'Reilly Cup. Head coach: Jay Tregonning

New Zealand

On 2 August, head coach Wayne Smith named a 33-player squad for the 2022 Laurie O'Reilly Cup. Head coach: Wayne Smith

Broadcast

All the O’Reilly Cup matches were broadcast live on Sky.

References

{{Laurie O'Reilly Cup Laurie O'Reilly Cup Australia women's national rugby union team New Zealand women's national rugby union team

Laurie O'Reilly Cup The Laurie O'Reilly Cup is the trophy competed for by the women's rugby union teams of Australia and New Zealand. The two nations met annually between 1994 and 1998, with New Zealand winning all games, often by significant margins, as a result of ...