SportsOctober 9, 2018

The rarest piece of NZ sporting merchandise? A Black Ferns jersey

Editor

It’s literally impossible to buy Black Ferns merchandise. Madeleine Chapman still tried, and got very angry in the process.

You can learn a lot about me by looking in my wardrobe. The first thing you’ll learn is that I dress poorly and it’s a real issue. The second thing you’ll learn is who I support. Celine Dion, Haim, The National, Wellington Basketball, Samoa Cricket, the University of Nebraska Huskers, KFC. You’ll learn that I’m Samoan by clocking my Fahitua Family Reunion t-shirt because only Samoans make merch for their massive family reunions.

What you won’t learn is that I’m a big fan of the Black Ferns because there’s no such thing as Black Ferns merchandise.

Not in an abstract way like how there’s no such thing as a free lunch – there’s literally no such thing as Black Ferns merchandise. Check the official New Zealand Rugby store if you’re unsure. Once there, you’ll find 159 pieces of branded All Blacks gear available for purchase and one (1) item of Black Ferns merch. That one item is trading cards, which show three All Blacks on the front but presumably have one or two Black Ferns feature in each pack.

I learned this the same way many others have learned: trying to buy a Black Ferns jersey. After searching Google for “black ferns jersey”, the top result from Rebel Sport directed me to “Womens All Blacks Jersey”, an All Blacks jersey in a women’s cut. The links to the official All Blacks merchandise store led to a Black Ferns Sevens jersey. I’m a fan of the Black Ferns Sevens but despite the similar name, they’re very much a different team, and I wasn’t searching for a Sevens jersey. Could it really be that the five time World Champion Black Ferns didn’t have any merch?

Yes, it could. An email asking New Zealand Rugby just that received this grim response: “The only Black Ferns jerseys available at this stage are Black Ferns sevens. However, we are looking at producing a broader range of Black Ferns items which will hopefully be available sometime soon. Please keep a look out on our website for future information.”

“A broader range” suggests there’s currently a limited range of Black Ferns merch, which is untrue. There is currently no range.

It might feel like a molehill, but the complete lack of merchandise for sale is indicative of the neglectful mountain that is New Zealand Rugby’s treatment of the women’s game. Even the implication that Black Ferns Sevens jerseys count as Black Ferns merch shows that women’s sport is considered as one, and not as the separate strengths they are.

There are very few, if any, rugby teams in New Zealand that do not offer merchandise to their fans. The Auckland Blues – an objectively terrible rugby team – have over 30 pieces of merch available. The Manawatu Turbos – a provincial side in the Mitre 10 Cup – offer 22 supporter gear options, including basketball singlets, bucket hats, and polo shirts. Eden Rugby – the local club down the road from my house – has supporter t-shirts, hoodies, hats, and socks for sale.

Here is a random selection of All Blacks branded items for sale from the official merch store:

All Blacks Puffer Jacket
All Blacks Memory Foam Pillow
All Blacks Fountain Pen
All Blacks Whistle Bottle Opener Keyring
Four different All Blacks ID tags for pets
All Blacks Turf iPhone Cover with Logo
All Blacks Turf iPhone Cover with Wordmark
26 other All Blacks phone cases
All Blacks bib set for babies

If all this is for sale, Black Ferns jerseys definitely should be

Turns out, merchandise for the Black Ferns, the most successful rugby team in the world, is a rare collector’s item. I had seen only two people (outside of current or former players) with the coveted jersey. That meant I had two chances to buy one secondhand. Those two people were the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, and ZM radio host Clint Roberts. I went to Clint first.

Roberts had been a vocal supporter of the Black Ferns for a while, so decided to cash in all his favours in the lead up to the double header at Eden Park last month. “I had tried to buy one but all I could get was a women’s size small Black Ferns Sevens jersey from last year. So I thought I’d get it from the merch tent at the game but you couldn’t buy a single piece of Black Ferns merch.”

Roberts called around and managed to borrow a game jersey from the team’s kit bag. Yes, the Black Ferns themselves loaned one of their jerseys to him to wear during the match. He took a photo in it, posted to Instagram, and returned the jersey when the final whistle blew.

The following week, Roberts and co-host Bree Tomasel held “a bit of a peaceful protest slash complain session on the radio.” New Zealand Rugby didn’t get in touch with answers, but some of the players heard and sent the hosts two retired jerseys. They also sent a Black Ferns cap, something I’d never seen before. And with those two items, Clint Roberts from ZM became the most supportive Black Ferns fan in the country. He refused to sell me his jersey, but was equally pissed off at the complete lack of items available. “Don’t you think if you’re a young girl and you want to play rugby, you should be able to wear the jersey that the players you like are wearing?” I agreed, though I wasn’t really listening once he said no to my purchase offer.

You vs the jersey she told you not to worry about

As well as asking Roberts for his, I had posted signs around Eden Park searching for owners of Black Ferns jerseys. I even made my own knock-off jersey with a budget black t-shirt and some fabric paint. I browsed Trademe and only found a Silver Ferns rugby jersey, which I bought. It’s a great jersey, but how did netball fans get rugby merch before rugby fans?

The prime minister was my last hope. I sent her a message on Instagram asking if her Black Ferns jersey was for sale. It wasn’t. “I was given my jersey by the Black Ferns at their pre game jersey ceremony,” she said. “So sadly, I consider it priceless.” My last hope was crushed. But only for a moment. “I might still be able to help you get one though. Would you like me to?”

I’d done it. If anyone was going to be able to get a Black Ferns jersey for me, it was the leader of our nation. I felt like I’d been let into the club while all my friends had been denied. This has literally never happened to me but I assume all the girls I’ve seen experience this felt as privileged as I did in that moment.

While I waited for Jacinda Ardern to put in her request with New Zealand rugby, I put in my own. I asked to speak to someone who could answer my questions, namely “why is there no Black Ferns merchandise (including jerseys) available for fans to buy?” and “when will there be Black Ferns merchandise available to buy?” I didn’t get an interview. Instead, I was sent a press statement attributed to Chief Operating Officer Nicki Nicol that concluded ““Fans can look out for more Black Ferns merchandise to be released before the end of the year.” Again, the “more” suggests that there is currently something, anything, for sale. There is not.

I asked the minister for sport, Grant Robertson, what his thoughts were on the matter. He’s been a staunch advocate for women in sport but sadly his response was a press statement that read eerily similar to the one sent by New Zealand Rugby.

For all I know, this is more an issue with the sponsors than with New Zealand Rugby. Adidas make the playing jerseys and therefore the supporter gear. But even so, New Zealand Rugby is a behemoth organisation and they almost always get what they want. If they really wanted to promote the Black Ferns, they would. And how hard is it to print flags? Posters? Anything? People like to point to the (lack of) commercial viability in women’s sport as a reason it’s not promoted. But when I can buy an ugly $90 phone case made out of literal turf with the All Blacks logo on it and I can’t buy a single item with the Black Ferns logo on it, the commercial viability argument doesn’t stand. You can’t say people don’t want to buy something when you refuse to sell it to them.

While writing this, a parcel was delivered to me at work (I’d actually already written a different ending when the courier showed up). It was a Black Ferns jersey. The note attached was signed by the Black Ferns manager and thanked me for my interest and support. “We heard about your search for a team jersey. While there are not currently any in market, we’ve grabbed one out of the team supply.

“We hope you wear the jersey with pride.”

I will. I only wish others could too.

Keep going!

Fijian winger Nemani Nadolo played a starring role over three seasons with the Crusaders, before heading back to Europe (Photo/Getty Images)

SportsOctober 1, 2018

Pacific players dominate rugby. So why still can’t they stay and play at home?

Vinnie Wylie

Guest writer

Fijian winger Nemani Nadolo played a starring role over three seasons with the Crusaders, before heading back to Europe (Photo/Getty Images)

Nearly a quarter of players at the last Rugby World Cup were of Pacific Island descent. But, 23 years since the game turned professional, players born in Fiji, Samoa and Tonga still have to leave home to make a living from the sport. For Insight, RNZ Pacific’s Sports Editor Vinnie Wylie asks whether a Pacific Super Rugby team is the answer.

Greg Foe was born in Apia’s Moto’otua hospital in 1991. The second of four children, the future Manu Samoa international first picked up a rugby ball at the age of nine but didn’t play competitively until his family moved to New Zealand when he was a teenager, because at the time Samoa did not have organised teams for juniors.

The Wellington Lions loose forward represented Samoa at Sevens and ‘A’ level before making his test debut in 2016, but is still waiting for the chance to prove himself at Super Rugby level.

That goal is a step closer to reality for Foe and his fellow Pacific Island players after New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs commissioned a study into the feasibility of a Pacific based Super rugby side.

The report, carried out by accountants Crowe Horwath in December last year, concluded Super Rugby’s governing body South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Argentinian Rugby (SANZAAR) was likely to support a Pacific Island team from 2021, as it looked to expand into emerging markets, although who would come up with the $18m each year to run the team remained unresolved.

Foreign Affair Minister Winston Peters believes backing the Pacific to do well in a sport it thrives on would be good for relations.

“We have a sporting diplomacy aspect to foreign affairs in New Zealand. In fact it helps us to further prosecute the values that we have as a country but on this issue, the moment you start talking about financial backing you would have to know exactly at what level, how much and for how long – and whether a period of time they would financially self-sustainable.”

Mr Foe, 26, who juggles his rugby commitments with work as a personal trainer, said having a Super Rugby team based in the Pacific Islands would be a game-changer.

“With a lot of players they look to go overseas and having a (Super Rugby team) in the Pacific will help hopefully retain our Pacific players…which I think will help grow (rugby in) the Pacific.

“Especially from the younger players coming through. They see a lot of their idols on TV and most of their idols are playing overseas in Europe, whereas in New Zealand the All Blacks tour round…they go visit schools and hospitals and they’re the role models in their countries.

“As a Pacific Super Rugby team it would be good if it was the same for them as well – have them visit Tonga, Fiji and Samoa and having them accessible, to be able to go to schools and give back.”

Mr Foe returns home to Samoa regularly and said there was a number of local players who had the talent to make rugby a career path if given the chance.

“There’s a lot of players from Under 20s that have had massive potential and I’ve gone back and played sevens with them, I’ve gone back and played Samoa A with them, gone back and forth.

“And there’s some of them that I’ve just seen at their highest level and because there’s nothing else after Samoa A and stuff they kind of get lost in that system and then they don’t end up really getting to where I could see them go, like probably Super or Mitre 10 level, or overseas for that matter.”

“For some that’s all that they have. They’re putting all their eggs in one basket. They didn’t do well in school so sport is their out,” he said.

Mr Foe said aspiring players in Samoa regularly had to travel large distances to get to training, often held in remote fields outside villages, and to make it on time they have to be disciplined.

“They have no choice: They have to get up and catch that bus in the morning because there is certain times that the buses travel so if you miss that bus you will definitely miss training.”

With such a tight morning schedule something had to give, he said.

“Most of the boys back home they don’t have breakfast . They don’t get up and have Weetbix like we do. They get up empty stomach, drink water, go to training, do a couple of hours of hard yaka in training and then go back home.”

For many in the Pacific rugby meant a lot more than running around a muddy field with your mates on a Saturday afternoon.

“For the players back home, they’re doing it for their families, they’re doing it to hopefully get a contract overseas.

“That’s the end goal for most of those local players back home is to get a contract and be able to send money back to their families.”

Wellington Lions and Manu Samoa loose forward Greg Foe juggles rugby with work commitments as a personal trainer. (Photo: RNZ/Vinnie Wylie)

Nemani Nadolo is one of the lucky ones. The Sigatoka-born, Brisbane-raised Fiji international has travelled the world making a living from the game he loves, with stints in Australia, France, England, Japan and New Zealand.

Despite enjoying his life in the south of France, where the 30-year-old Montpellier wing and his wife have recently purchased a house, Nadolo plans to move back to Fiji when he retires from playing and would jump at the chance to finish his playing career on home soil.

“We have talks around the kava bowl here in Europe and as much as it’s good (over here) guys are excited and we’ve always tossed it up, would you go back?

“You find more of the boys have put their hand up and been like,’Yeah, if an opportunity came it’d be good to go back home and play professional – be in a professional sport back home.

“Obviously with some of us guys getting on with our careers it’d be obviously good for the younger guys but if they had a few slots where they feel that they could have some experienced guys to help nurture the young guys.”

Eight years on from his test debut, the hulking winger still gets a kick out of representing his country.

“As professional sports people, whether we like it or not, we’re role models and we have an opportunity to make a difference.

“To me it was just a way of giving back and if I can go back and play for my country, I can still play at a good level here in Europe or in Super Rugby and still make a name for myself, and if I can make a little kid back in the villages back home dream then that for me is an accomplishment.”

Talk of a Pacific-based Super rugby side is now bringing that dream a little closer to reality for the next generation of Pacific rugby players.

“It’s an amazing thing when you hear about a professional team going on the island because it gives opportunities for those young guys to put a foot forward and with the Drua (team from Fiji playing in the Australian domestic competition) coming up you’ve still got those guys playing there, which is professional at a certain level.”

Former Tonga captain Inoke Afeaki spent close to two decades playing professionally in New Zealand, Japan, Wales and France.

Now settled back in Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa, the former Wellington Hurricanes lock said, while the Pacific could not compete with the money in Europe and Asia, a locally-based Super Rugby team was about much more than money.

“They might have had their fill of being overseas and it’s now time to come back and some might have ageing parents they want to be close to during their last years and have their kids know their grandparents.

“The cost of living in the islands is not too high, so you don’t have to be paid that amount of money. It’s similar to what the All Blacks have with just playing in New Zealand, rather than take say five times what they’re getting paid for the All Blacks to play at an overseas club. Those sort of soft values in life – why you do something – come into play and it’s not usually about the money.”

Discussions about the future make-up of Super Rugby and the prospects for a Pacific Island team are on-going with SANZAAR hoping to sign off on the final competition structure when it meets in London in November.

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