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. Women's rugby has become popular recently. These days, women's r ...

teams of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. 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 tour ...

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

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

and

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

. 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 f ...

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

Eden Park Eden Park is a sports venue in Auckland, New Zealand. It is located three kilometres southwest of the Auckland CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount Eden and Kingsland. The main stadium has a nominal capacity of 50,000, and is s ...

in 2016, also before the men's clash, the crowd size peaked at 12,500. In 2020, All planned test matches for the Wallaroos 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 in 2022. 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 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 ...

. 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 Australia–New Zealand sports relations

History

Results

Matches

See also

References