The Black Ferns are officially the best women's rugby team in the world. This comes after World Rugby released the first ever official ranking system for the women's version of the game. However, one Māori Black Fern hopes this international recognition will raise the profile of the team.
The Black Ferns believe they should be of equal standing to the All Blacks.
Hinewai Pomare says, "The team believes they need more recognition on a national and international level."
Today World Rugby introduced the first official global rankings for women's test rugby, and New Zealand are at the top of the list.
"It's a start, but we are still in our infancy, we want to develop our game to its full potential so that the game itself can be seen by as many people as possible," adds Pomare.
The Black Ferns are in pole position with France, England, Ireland, Canada, America and Australia who are the top women's rugby teams in the world.
Pomare says, "If you look at countries like Australia, America, China, England, those types of countries they do well to finance their female teams."
In the men's ranking systems, the process for financial support came from scores dating back to 1987 which gave the first official ranking of its kind.
"However, New Zealand is different. We have not yet been financed that type of money, and resources to build our team," exclaims Pomare.
The biggest hope is that the profile of women's rugby is the same as the All Blacks.
"We've seen the All Blacks play on television, but there aren't many Black Fern games that are played. But this is a good step forward," she says.
Three of the top five teams will go head-to-head during this year's women's Six Nations, which kicks off this weekend.