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The Hand belonging to Joanah Ngan-Woo
The Hand belonging to Joanah Ngan-Woo

SportsNovember 14, 2022

I can’t stop thinking about The Hand

The Hand belonging to Joanah Ngan-Woo
The Hand belonging to Joanah Ngan-Woo

Joanah Ngan-Woo’s hand sealed a World Cup victory for the Black Ferns. Madeleine Chapman celebrates it.

I can’t stop thinking about The Hand. The Hand is on my mind whenever I reach out to grasp something or someone waves at me. When I successfully pick up a mug, I remember The Hand. When I scratch my head, I remember The Hand. As I type these words, The Hand is there. 

The Hand belongs to Joanah Ngan-Woo, a 26-year old Wellingtonian playing in her first Rugby World Cup. During the tournament, Ngan-Woo was on a break from her day job working as a policy analyst for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. She will likely return to that job and use her hand(s) to type emails and staple papers but on the night of Saturday, November 12, 2022, Ngan-Woo single handedly sealed a World Cup win for the Black Ferns. 

Look at it. Yes, it looks kind of funny because any fast action looks funny when reduced to a single frame, but this single frame perfectly captures the Black Ferns’ entire World Cup campaign. That is Ngan-Woo’s left hand. In this frame, the final play of the match, Ngan-Woo has played 15 minutes total. She subbed on in the 65th minute as a reserve lock. I know this because I searched “Ngan-Woo” in one of the final live blogs and there was exactly one result, which was to note that she had subbed in. There was no mention of The Hand.

Ngan-Woo was the starting lock for the Black Ferns’ opening day match against Australia and also a pool match against Scotland. Otherwise she was a replacement lock. 

In this frame, the Black Ferns had conceded four tries from lineout drives. And in the 80th minute, being five metres out from a your own tryline with an England lineout on the way is about the last thing anyone wanted. In this frame, New Zealand had resorted to not even contesting the lineouts in favour of preparing for the maul. 

For the last play of the game, the team decided that Ngan-Woo would contest the throw. If England won the lineout, it was almost inevitable that they would score and take home the World Cup. They’d won nearly all their lineouts to this point so the odds were still very much in their favour.

Look at this. That is as high as Ngan-Woo was lifted. Look at the England player. Now look at the ball. There is nothing in this frame that suggests any outcome other than a clean England lineout followed by a clean maul followed by a clean try followed by England as champions. Except for The Hand.

I’m still not sure (physically) how this happened. The ball was right there for England. It was a good throw and a good lift. But Ngan-Woo had The Hand. The Hand with fingers stretched more than I knew was possible in a hand. Stretched so much that in any other situation it would be roundly mocked at family gatherings. The square footage in that hand is huge. That hand could catch two rugby balls at once.

The England player is all squared up, two hands at the ready. There’s only one hand from Ngan-Woo, a literal last-minute act of desperation. Much like the Black Ferns’ World Cup campaign, the odds are against it and it’s a messy lead-up but that scrappy claw doesn’t care. All it needs is one chance.

The Hand is heavily bandaged – Ngan-Woo herself is heavily bandaged with both legs and both wrists strapped every game. The Hand has done this before. The Hand is clearly a known menace to every rugby team on the other side of it. In this moment, The Hand does exactly what it has always done: it gets in the way and swats the ball back to the other great hands of Krystal Murray. The game is won and The Hand’s job is done.

Those of us privileged enough to have been at Eden Park when it happened didn’t get to see The Hand in all its glory. We were too distracting by winning that we didn’t stop to think about what had just been created: a five-fingered legend.

There are a thousand moments in every sports match that decide the final result. Every missed tackle or kick or try could be the thing that changes the outcome. But when it all comes down to it, the final play is the final play. And on Saturday night, the final play was Ngan-Woo’s hand, coming up like the hand of God to gift victory to the Black Ferns. I love The Hand, even as a photo of a TV because Spark Sport doesn’t allow screenshots. 

Diego Maradona’s hand caused controversy, heartache and anger for decades after the 1986 Football World Cup. Joanah Ngan-Woo’s hand brings nothing but joy.

Put The Hand in Te Papa. Or at the very least, frame the shot and hang it at Eden Park forever.

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Madeleine Chapman
— Editor
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Men’s rugby in New Zealand is predominantly played by members of the Barrett family. Pictured here: Jordie and Scott (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
Men’s rugby in New Zealand is predominantly played by members of the Barrett family. Pictured here: Jordie and Scott (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

OPINIONSportsNovember 14, 2022

Time to get behind our plucky ‘All Blacks’

Men’s rugby in New Zealand is predominantly played by members of the Barrett family. Pictured here: Jordie and Scott (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
Men’s rugby in New Zealand is predominantly played by members of the Barrett family. Pictured here: Jordie and Scott (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Some may cry ‘tokenism’, but our men’s rugby side needs a boost.

You probably missed it, but a courageous and hardworking New Zealand sports team put their bodies on the line for their country over the weekend. They gave it their all, they battled for 80 minutes, and they won. In the early hours of Monday morning, the New Zealand men’s rugby union team, nicknamed “the All Blacks” and ranked third in the world in the male form of the game, scraped out a 31-23 win over the Scottish men, ranked eighth.

Did they exhibit the dynamism and strategy, the skill and coruscating starpower of the World Cup winning Black Ferns? They did not. The spark, guile and heart of the Samoan side that edged England to make the rugby league world cup final? No. The raw sex appeal of the opening weekend in the Cazoo Grand Slam of Darts at the Aldersley Leisure Village, Wolverhampton? Clearly not. 

But however easy it would be to overlook and ignore the result in a busy weekend of sport, this small but important victory for a spirited New Zealand side should be acknowledged. We should stand up and put our hands together. Specifically, put our hands together three times then awkwardly blurt out “All Blacks” then put our hands together another three times then sit down.

The All Blacks boys might not be the heroes of the day, dominating headlines and water cooler conversations. But they have potential. They have pluck. At least one of their players (Ardie Savea) is so good you could imagine him throwing a ball around with the Black Ferns. With the right support and media training, some of the men’s side, too, could plausibly capture the imaginations of young New Zealanders.

The record of the men’s side may be indifferent across recent times. They may have struggled to recapture the golden years enjoyed under acclaimed captains like Colin Meads, Richie McCaw and John Key. They may very often look like the world’s saddest robots. There may no longer be the flair of barnstorming back play, broken feet and unpouched testicles. But we must not write the lads off. 

The All Blacks experienced some of their greatest success under talismanic captain John Key (Photo: Getty Images)

It will not happen overnight. We cannot ask the men to immediately emulate the national rugby team’s performance at Eden Park on Saturday night and beat their English counterparts at Twickenham. But they must begin a journey of learning. 

If they study the methods and mentality of the national side – if they draw on the leadership of Ruahei Demant, the genius of Theresa Fitzpatrick and Sarah Hirini, the sparkling skills and sheer elation of Stacey Fluhler and Ruby Tui – one day the All Blacks can hope to become a sensation, too. One day, with the necessary support, willingness to learn, and discovery of human personality, their day will come, especially if those who head along to watch them can take lessons of their own. Specifically, how to sing, how to inspire, and how to radiate on to the playing field thrill and enthusiasm rather than tuneless complacency, gloom and indigestion. 

All Blacks playmaker Beauden Barrett performs a Theresa Fitzpatrick style grubber kick (Photo: David Rogers/Getty Images)

The Black Ferns themselves have a role to play. Some will argue it is “tokenism” to speak up for the men’s side. Others, worse still, will say that giving the boys a leg up amounts to “hush money” for the woke brigade. “Sexism!” they will howl at every suggestion men’s rugby must be saved – let it be euthanised, they will say; put it down like a sorry old horse. 

But the Black Ferns are bigger than all that. They have athleticism, camaraderie and charisma to burn. They surely will understand the need to give the men’s game a lift. To believe. When the Black Ferns next take the field for a test here in Aotearoa they should do the right thing, and invite the All Blacks to play their own game in the curtain-raiser.

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Toby Manhire
— Editor-at-large
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