Krystal Murray of the Kiwi Ferns makes a run against the Jillaroos during Day 1 of the NRL Auckland Nines Rugby League Tournament, Eden Park, Auckland, New Zealand. Saturday 31 January 2015. Copyright Photo: Anthony Au-Yeung / www.photosport.co.nz

Kaitaia’s Krystal Murray has been selected to represent the New Zealand Women’s rugby league team, the Kiwi Ferns, for the curtain raiser match against archrivals the Australian Jillaroos. The match will be played in Newcastle as undercard to the Downer ANZAC test Friday 6 May. Krystal has represented the Kiwi Ferns since 2014 and was selected in her first year of playing rugby league. Based at Linton Military camp in the Manawatu and serving as soldier at the time for the New Zealand Logistics Regiment she attended the NZRL National Women’s tournament representing the Mid-Central Zone. Krystal left the Army in 2015 and moved home to Kaitaia to provide family support and has been travelling to Auckland to play club rugby league for Papakura to remain eligible for national selection. Krystal made mention of the improved structure in the team with the build up for this test match and that it would be great for Northland to have its own Women’s competition in the future.

Coach Alan Jackson has named five test newcomers in his 18-strong group to take on Australia. Jackson admits the selection of this outfit presented some tough challenges.

“The selectors and I had a number of sleepless nights picking this team,” he says. “The quality of the players we have in the game in New Zealand at the moment is very, very good, making this a hard job, but we’re very happy with the 18 that we have. “The Aussies have very fast backs and very strong forwards that keep working all day, so it’s going to be a real challenge. They beat us by eight last year, so we’re looking for a little bit of revenge.” The Kiwi Ferns muster in Auckland this Sunday and fly to Sydney on Tuesday for the Friday night fixture that will be televised.