In the wake of the Black Ferns’ semifinal loss to Canada at the Rugby World Cup, Alice Soper rewrites the same column she feels like she’s been writing for years.

This story was originally published on Alice Soper’s Substack, Alice’s Soapbox.

“Sometimes the worst thing you can do is win. Success, in a nominal sense, can hide a multitude of sins. While the wins kept coming for New Zealand’s Black Ferns, it was easy to believe that the system was working. Those hasty domestic seasons, shoulder-tapped coaching teams and part-time wages were the winning recipe.” – Me, in an article from 2022

I have been writing some version of the same column since 2021. It goes a little something like this: we are very good at rugby but we are very bad at running it for women. We do not give ourselves enough games, either domestically or internationally. For a long time our talent has been good enough to cover these shortcomings. Eventually, this will no longer be the case.

Unfortunately, that eventuality was realised last weekend.

The semifinal was the parsley garnish on top of the shit sandwich we’ve been serving women’s rugby since the last World Cup. The one that squandered all opportunity and boxed on with the least ambitious plan possible for our World Champions.

“At the time of writing this, it has been 137 days since the Black Ferns won the Rugby World Cup. Since then, we have had 137 opportunities to announce when the next Black Ferns test will be played and so far we have had zero confirmation. Any of the balloons that were inflated with hope and promise of those amazing scenes last November, are now lying wrinkled and deflated on the living room floor.” – Me, in my column for the Herald on Sunday in March 2023

Yes, the minimum wage for Black Ferns raised to $50,000 per year. Yes, World Rugby launched WXV which gave us more structure in our international calendar. Yes, we had a bigger support team around the Black Ferns then ever. Yes, we sometimes have a development team. Yes, we had more amazing breakthrough talent emerge. But have we really made any moves ourselves or simply been dragged along by the rising tide? Hitting the minimum of what’s required to participate in 2025.

I’ve been thinking about it all – the stubbornness, the crumbs, the how-dare-you response to the questions asked. The fragility of it all when what we are crying out for is something more robust.

“…the write-ups will tell you, it was a good start. But was it really? Did the talent and their sacrifice not deserve the energy of an engaged audience? And did the talent really need to keep making sacrifices for those unable to execute a Plan B?

If we really want Aupiki to be the ascent, and not a continuation of the slow uphill climb, it deserves better than this. And in order to raise that bar, we have to ask for more and not be thought of as poor sports for doing so.” – Me, in another column from 2022

That this fall has come after the promise of 2022 worries me deeply. I just don’t know if there is the will or skill within New Zealand Rugby to address the real meaningful shift now needed. In the last cycle, it was enough to pay your top players and negotiate more international fixtures. We’ve did that and the majority of a New Zealand player’s first class games are now internationals.

The difference between us and our competitors now is what lies beneath. Our top-heavy investment is sitting upon an increasingly hollow feeder system. Nothing I’ve seen in plans for next year is addressing that. It’s shuffling deck chairs as the world marches forward.

What Canada’s head coach Kévin Rouet is saying here is what I need New Zealand to hear. That when you don’t have much you need to be creative. And you need to be efficient with what you do have to make sure it is the very best.

That’s what Canada’s done. Made a plan for how they would win a World Cup. Secured the funds they could from their union, their sponsors and then rather than scaling back their ambition, went to their community to raise the shortfall.

They were efficient with their spend. Rather then spend a lot trying to establish a domestic league that would prime the players for the competition ahead, they leveraged the investment of others. The majority of their World Cup squad played in England’s PWR, one in Aupiki and the rest in France.

When they came up against obstacles, they found away through it. Unconventional at times but always in aim of getting this team and its players more time playing good rugby. They were creative, they were efficient. They are now 80 minutes away from lifting their first World Cup trophy.

Can we honestly say we have been doing that? More money has come in but outside of the Black Ferns set up have you felt a difference? Have we been creative? Have we been efficient?

Club rugby is still limping along, Farah Palmer Cup under-utilised for talent ID of both players and coaches. Same goes for Aupiki, which should be utilised as extension of the Black Ferns environment but instead we have seen run like fiefdoms.

Our World Cup stumble comes amongst a series of missteps for our national game. It might not be enough to register any ringing of alarm bells and instead be rounded up into New Zealand’s general decline. That’s the real cause for concern.

My deepest fear is this moment will replicate the beginning of the New Zealand women’s football story. A team, full of talent, who actually beat the USA in the early emergence of the women’s football. A team, left for dust once professionalism of programming began in earnest.

“I do not doubt for one second that we have the best athletes in New Zealand, but the equation is off and does not equal the effort being put in.” – Me, in a column from 2021

We still have the world’s best athletes – just count how many of them appear in the World Rugby nominees. But talent alone is no longer enough. Talent needs opportunities, to develop, to win and lose away from the bigger spotlight. To play, damn it, to play!

World class talent needs world class guidance and that’s not who is developing our strategy right now. We need someone who lives and breaths the game, more specifically the women’s game. That person may well be off our shores as most advancement in the women’s game has been. Right now we are as isolated in our thinking as we are our geography. Those are the bridges we must build in earnest. Looking out and closer at the rest of the world we want to conquer.

“To those in our women’s rugby community, I beg you, no more thankyous. Not to the hand, that’s been twisted, to feed you. Our critics are cheerleaders of meritocracies and you, my sisters, have earned everything you’ve got.” – Me, in a column from 2022

The final I-told-you-so comes from one of my rugby mums, Julia Apu’ula. I interviewed her three years ago when she was walking alongside her daughter as she tried to steer her toward success in our sport. The same daughter who has now gotten involved with rugby league.

What Julia articulated here, is more relevant now than ever.

“Those are the fundamental years when we should be developing them the most. And there’s just a massive gap there.” Apu’ula said. “And then by the time that they’re ready to start looking at it as a professional sport, they’re at that stage in life, where they then have to start working or studying full time and so that then takes a backseat.”

“There isn’t an authentic, developed or developing pathway system. There’s a piecemeal tokenistic approach.” – Julia Apu’ula, in a Mother’s Day story I wrote in 2022

This might be the most depressed thing I’ve ever written, but the writing is on the wall. It’s been there, painted over poorly by miraculous, against all odds wins. In order to feel happy with the state of play, I need a proper programme, I need a strategy, I need a vision. I need to feel like New Zealand Rugby feel this loss as acutely as Kennedy Tukuafu did in that press conference.