One of the few pieces of Black Ferns merch and the new Black Ferns NFTs

OPINIONSportsOctober 19, 2022

Does New Zealand Rugby know there’s a World Cup happening?

Editor

One of the few pieces of Black Ferns merch and the new Black Ferns NFTs

The Rugby World Cup could very well be a success on all fronts – despite New Zealand Rugby’s apparent disinterest, writes Mad Chapman.

Two weeks into the Rugby World Cup and the Black Ferns have all but secured a quarter final spot after their comprehensive win over Wales on Sunday. They’re not the tournament favourites (England’s Red Roses are the frontrunners) but the team is easy to support, with arguably the most media and fan-friendly players of any New Zealand rugby side.

Despite a number of barriers to engagement (games only played in Auckland and Whangārei, television broadcasts delayed or on paid platform Spark Sport), interest in the tournament so far has been heartening. A great (but not sold out) crowd at the opening day, and a huge 340,000 watching the delayed free-to-air broadcast at home. World Rugby has facilitated marketing and merchandise and tournament sponsors like ASB have been highly visible. So why does it feel like there’s been little-to-no interest from New Zealand Rugby in meaningfully promoting the tournament and the Black Ferns?

Nielsen television ratings, featuring delayed rugby coverage at number eight.

The merch

I have a Black Ferns jersey so personally I’m doing fine. But that jersey was acquired by being extremely annoying and somehow brokering a personal favour from the prime minister. Thankfully it doesn’t take Jacinda Ardern to get your hands on a jersey any more, with official Rugby World Cup editions available at the official NZR shop (URL: allblackshop.com) which you can get to by visiting the official NZR website (URL: allblacks.com). The jerseys are $150.

If you can’t afford a jersey, NZR recently (like, since the tournament began) added a beanie ($30) and a rain poncho ($25). You can also buy a replica ball ($50), a picture book about Kendra Cocksedge ($15 and it’s unclear if this is Black Ferns merch), or my favourite, a Black Ferns merino shawl for the cool price of $399.

Those are your options as local fans of the home team in the hosting country of the Rugby World Cup.

Black Ferns merch in the All Blacks shop

The Stat Attack cards

Sanitarium is a NZ Rugby partner with “a long association with NZ Rugby” and “a proud legacy of the Weet-Bix and All Blacks brands being promoted together”. Shortly before the World Cup, Sanitarium released the latest round of Weet-Bix Stat Attack cards featuring New Zealand rugby players for kids to collect. The cards include most All Blacks (including some who were subsequently dropped from the squad after the cards were printed), the All Blacks coach, and a number of former legendary All Blacks including the late Jerry Collins. (An aside: as a relative of Collins’, it’s a bit jarring to see his face on a cereal box six years after his death.)

The Stat-Attack cards are still available throughout the World Cup but none of the cards feature Black Ferns. It’s assumed that young girls also eat Weet-Bix and also that young boys are interested in good rugby players who aren’t men. When asked for a reason as to why the Black Ferns weren’t featured, Sanitarium said it had “included the Black Ferns in Weet-Bix promotions in the past and are looking to again in the future”.

Neither New Zealand Rugby nor Sanitarium answered questions regarding the cards and whether including Black Ferns during the World Cup was discussed.

The All Blacks

Where are they? One would assume that someone who plays rugby for a living would be a rugby fan, but very little has been seen of current players supporting their women’s team. At the opening day, I spotted Dan Carter and thought that was nice. Then I realised Chemist Warehouse is a tournament sponsor and he was likely there in his role as a chemist ambassador.

Otherwise, I saw no cutaways to All Blacks watching from the stands or in a corporate box. Compare that to the WNBA where, with a few exceptions, NBA players are the most vocal fans of their women counterparts. So much so that players often end up chastising their own fans for disrespecting or dismissing women players in the comments sections of their supportive posts.

So far, the All Blacks account has posted one picture on Instagram as a show of support at the start of the tournament, with no current All Blacks (that I could see in my searching) sharing any public posts about either the tournament or the Black Ferns specifically.

No, there’s no obligation for the All Blacks to publicly support the Black Ferns, but maybe there should be. The WNBA has grown thanks in no small part to the league-wide investment from the NBA. When paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to play sport, the contract comes with other duties like sponsorship appearances, media and community events. In the NBA, an expectation of public support for other leagues is also included, and readily adopted by the biggest stars (LeBron James leading from the front). Why not here?

The NFTs

Sometimes I think New Zealand Rugby couldn’t possibly do less to support its women players and then it buys 33 NFTs “in a show of support for the Black Ferns”.

Yes, it’s as ridiculous as it sounds. New Zealand Rugby’s commercial arm decided to invest in NFTs. In a statement on its site, NZR references Web3, MoonPay (a Web3 infrastructure company) and World of Women, an NFT digital art collection.

In what appears to be a partnership with Web3 companies, NZRC has invested in 33 NFTs. And as “a show of support for the Black Ferns”, has purchased NFTs of women. Not the Black Ferns themselves, just random women.

Nothing can be done with these NFTs, and, by the looks of the market, it’s unlikely any return will come from this investment. Perhaps that money could’ve been invested in some more accessible merch rather than putting the token in Non-Fungible Tokens.

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Madeleine Chapman
— Editor

Keep going!

Photos: Getty Images / Design: Archi Banal

SportsOctober 15, 2022

Remembering the Black Ferns’ 1998 Rugby World Cup strike weapons

Melodie Robinson

Guest writer

Photos: Getty Images / Design: Archi Banal

Watching Portia Woodman and Ruby Tui light up the Black Ferns’ World Cup opener last weekend reminded Melodie Robinson of how great the team’s attacking talent has always been.

This story first appeared on The Bounce, a Substack newsletter by Dylan Cleaver.

Portia Woodman went past Vanessa Cootes as our leading World Cup try scorer at Rugby World Cups with 16 tries. Our wings have been a huge part of why the Black Ferns have the best record of any team – male or female – in international rugby. In 1998 we had outside backs who would have given Woodman and Ruby Tui a run for their money!

Cootes’ name comes up every time Portia scores, because she set try-scoring records from the time she debuted in 1995 through to her retirement after the Rugby World Cup in Barcelona in 2002.

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Her try-scoring average was an unbelievable 2.69 tries every test she played. She still sits on top of the Black Ferns try leaderboard and holds the single-game record – nine against France back in 1996. She scored four in the World Cup final against the USA in 1998. My role in that team as a loose-running number 6 was often “just pass the bloody ball to Vanessa”.

She was an age-grade soccer and touch star, and actually played in one of the New Zealand women’s touch team’s rare victories against the tog-wearing Australians back in 2001 – in a team loaded with Black Ferns stars. Another fantastic Black Ferns wing, Mere Kingi – currently on the Māori Rugby board – also featured.

Cootes is not the type to put herself out there. I know she lives in Hamilton, but I haven’t seen her since she received her Black Ferns cap in 2018. She has put a lot of time into social work since her retirement but I’m hopeful that she gets to some of the matches over the next month.

Vanessa Cootes at the 1998 Rugby World Cup (Photo: David Rogers/Allsport)

If she was a former All Black she’d no doubt be reaping in the corporate-gig dollars, or be featured on a rugby show. I’d love to give her a hug and say “you are awesome”, something we didn’t get told back in the day because the prevailing thought was that we only scored that many tries because the opposition was so poor.

Well, no – we scored so many tries because we were so good.

Also on the list is our fullback Tammi Wilson, whose strike rate was 1.31 tries every time she pulled on the black jersey. Tammi was somewhat of an enigma back in the day because she was so bloody skinny – a bit like Glen Osborne actually – but had an awesome boot on her.

In fact, the story was she got her first taste in rugby while in standard three at St Joseph’s, Kaikōura. She was waiting for her mum to pick her up and kicked a stray ball back to the practicing boys’ team, and the coach was so impressed he got her involved that afternoon. Unfortunately, it was a short-lived debut as a school nun saw her play and gave her the strap the next day because girls weren’t allowed to play rugby!

Wilson got plenty of press on our way to the 1998 World Cup, too, because she ended up playing touch and league for New Zealand. Another example of our coach Darryl Suasua finding talent from other sports.

These days Tammi is on the board of the Players’ Association; she’s a mum, a physio and is finishing a PhD in something I wouldn’t have a clue about. She was a key part of the Black Ferns review team and continues to be outstanding.

Tammi Wilson at the 1998 Rugby World Cup (Photo: Dave Rogers/Allsport)

Finally, our ultimate over-achiever, Louisa Wall – the Jonah to Cootes’ Jeff Wilson.

At 1.75m and 80kgs she was big – there were no power wingers in the women’s game at that point, and no one person could bring her down. She’d usually tie up three defenders at a time. She would often hog the ball off the ruck, too, and make more ground than all of us forwards.

Typical of a Black Fern, Louisa was more than a rugby player. She would often practice her politics on the girls in the team. Inadvertently, I, the Richards sisters (Anna and Fiona) and Monalisa Codling would often end up getting in trouble.

For instance, in 1997 on the bus we sang the “mini haka” – “Give them the axe!” – from my Wellington club. We got our first lesson in cultural misappropriation – I’d never bloody heard of that before!

When she started studying social policy she was a walking, talking advertisement for academic theory. It was probably the first time many of us youngsters had learnt about social justice, and to be honest I’m grateful she opened my mind.

Louisa Wall at the 1998 Rugby World Cup (Photo: David Rogers/Allsport)

One of my favourite Louisa incidents was in 1999 when she was slightly injured and out of form. Coach Suasua decided to bench her and went to her room to let her know. I was in the room next door along with the Richards sisters, Annaleah Rush and Hannah Porter, and we had a glass up to the wall to listen to the two-hour debate that ensued.

Darryl was an amazing coach but also a very dominant personality – there was no such thing as player power back then – and our code word for him was Max. But Louisa took on Max! We loved it. Even if she didn’t get the start, it was a great insight into why she had the personality to get through significant policy as a member of parliament.

She was a natural born fighter and it’s a pity that the Labour government couldn’t keep her in the system considering her success, most notably the marriage equality law change. She is an amazing, diverse, strong woman – a bit much for some I guess!

I love watching today’s athletes, but I’d also like to acknowledge how great these players were. All three of them scored seven tries each at the 1998 World Cup – an astonishing achievement.