The hard work starts now
Gains made must be kept, plus the All Blacks 22 minutes of good overcomes 58 minutes of rubbish... and more!
The All Blacks this morning came from six points down late in the game to snatch victory from Scotland and it was nowhere near the biggest rugby story of the weekend. Not even in the same ballpark.
If watercooler conversations hadn’t been ruined by Covid and the subsequent work-from-home age, there’d be one topic this morning and it will have little to do with the incoherence that marked all but 20 minutes of the All Blacks’ performance.
It’d be centred upon something that happened 30-odd hours previous.
There is little doubt that the Black Ferns’ campaign tapped into the zeitgeist, but that alone comes nowhere near to explaining why it captured the public’s imagination in a way that would have been unfathomable a few short years ago.
Even on the night The Bounce was receiving beseeching correspondence from those caught in the moment. This from Olly (lightly edited for clarity):
“Please please please give a shout out to the lineout and subsequent goal-line heroics of [Krystal] Murray & [Joanah] Ngan-Woo in the corner at Eden Park last night.
“Un-be-live-able.
“The fortitude and confidence to pull that off at that moment of that game is now ingrained into the turf it occurred on.”
No need for me to add to this shout out Olly, you’ve done it yourself!
Even before the dramatic victory, a corner feels like it’s been turned here.
All the following elements, some larger than others, combined to create interest that grew as if propelled by critical mass.
Whereas another famous team in black does its best to neuter the personalities of those who play for them in the belief that the marketing of the “jersey” is more lucrative than those who wear it, the Black Ferns were full of irrepressible characters. While the internal dynamics of the team are difficult to divine from the outside, the Black Ferns recognised that if individuals like Ruby Tui are elevated to superstar status, it acts as a benefit, not a cost, to them all.
The Black Ferns are the undisputed best women’s team to have strapped on boots, had won the title five times coming into this tournament and yet were somehow the plucky battlers trying to resist France and England, the apparently unstoppable two-headed Hydra from the north. Part of this was clever positioning but part of it was the fact they were underdogs; their vulnerability to a well-organised, power-based game thoroughly exposed on the disastrous northern tour last year.
The aftermath of that tour has been well documented and needs no further dredging here, suffice to day it led to the appointment of Wayne Smith as head coach. Smith is a beloved figure in the game and had a professorial air when he was part of the All Blacks. Here he was cast slightly differently. Okay, he might not have been Walter Matthau’s Coach Morris Buttermaker, but there was an undeniable sense that he was this grandfatherly figure overseeing the transformation of a once-proud but now rag-tag collection of individuals.
In starting from a low point and working up, there was an unspoken inverse to what their illustrious male counterparts have been doing since early 2019.
After an uncertain start, there was a freshness and vitality to the coverage. Watching rugby in New Zealand can feel like you’re trapped in an infinity loop. The same big voices, the same opinion makers and breakers. This tournament was different, as articulated by Scotty Stevenson when he said: “It is actually refreshing to lean on some different voices for this World Cup. It has been an opportunity for some younger writers and broadcasters to show their chops.”
The final being screened live on free-to-air television was critical. This is not the place for a long treatise on the pros and cons of pay-TV v free-to-air but if you want to engage a latent fanbase that sits outside the narrow range of sports fanatics, free-to-air remains the most effective tool.
These all partly explain the surge in the popularity of the Black Ferns, but they still wouldn’t get the necessarily cut through were it not for the most important factor: the product was excellent, the final being a case in point.
Not flawless, not by a long, long shot, but that was part of the attraction. Most of the areas where the women’s game can make the most gains - kicking from hand and tee, and individual physicality at the breakdown so you don’t have to commit numbers - are the ones you really, really hope they don’t make big gains in. Lineout drive defence, however, would be one to get right because as admirable as mauling is and as legitimate as it might be as a strategy, you’ve seen one lineout drive try, you’ve seen them all.
The underwhelming performance of the All Blacks in this World Cup cycle set us up for a winter of palace intrigue-type stories, particularly around the coaching. The Black Ferns have injected some much-needed positivity into the national sport. It feels a little mean-spirited then, to end on a cautionary tale, but the gains won from this tournament will be easily lost.
In 1982 and 2010 New Zealand Football had launching pads but failed to build any rockets. The participation gains from the Black Caps brilliant performances up to the final of the co-hosted 2015 Cricket World Cup were not sustained and there are any number of niche sports who have waited in vain for Olympic medals to turn into a groundswell of public interest.
The Black Ferns hard-won respect and admiration will not automatically translate into a golden era for women’s rugby as a whole. That requires continued work and investment from a national body that has historically treated the women’s game with not so much disdain as disinterest.
Strangely enough, you could make an argument that England winning would have been better for the long-term aspirations of the women’s game. Putting aside style points and patriotism, the Rugby Football Union, England’s governing body, made significant investment into women’s rugby, professionalising the game and recognising both its immediate potential and growth opportunities. The Black Ferns victory carries with it the awkward recognition that you can treat the women’s game poorly for years then “flood the zone” with 11th-hour resources and still somehow win a sixth world title.
It will be fascinating to see how, or even if, New Zealand Rugby tries to capitalise on the Black Ferns success, and whether any of the lessons learned will be applied to other teams and areas of its business.
Here’s a few of the best links from the weekend. Written before the final, Duncan Greive covers the above point in far more depth and cleverer words in a piece headlined: “The Black Ferns have gifted NZ Rugby a second beloved national rugby team.”
For NZ Rugby, despite its historic indifference to the team, this is an unexpected gift. It, and its new investors at Silver Lake, suddenly have not just one major international sporting asset, but two. One which wins ratings battles and sells out stadiums. One which will bring in new sponsors and revenue streams. Better than that, one which has manifestly expanded the total pool of rugby fans in this country by some margin.
All that remains is for the organisation which has a monopoly on the national game in this country to capitalise on this moment. To ensure it’s not a blip but a movement will take care, strategy and, yes, further investment. The prize is bigger than any World Cup, and the business case is now irrefutable. And while tonight’s result is out of its hands, NZ Rugby, the kaitiaki of the Black Ferns, has total control over the long term outcome. Hundreds of thousands of brand new and very passionate fans will be watching. Don’t mess it up.
In the second instalment of a rare sporting doubleheader, Dan Carter’s ghostwriter also writes about the ratings triumph the final offered Three.
The final of the RWC has delivered an overwhelming ratings result to Three, the free-to-air broadcaster of the tournament, in partnership with rights holder Spark Sport. It attracted an audience of over 1.2m… along with an astonishing 64.9% share of viewers for the night – an all-time record for Three.
Perhaps because they’re under no obligation to cover rugby like rugby “has” to be covered, the smaller websites just seemed to cotton onto the idea this tournament was shitloads of fun and maybe even a little bit cosmic, as was “covered” here by Locker Room’s Suzanne McFadden.
A poi-twirling crowd, who drowned out the referee with their chanting and cheering, and were led by Ruby Tui singing Tutira Mai Ngā Iwi – a feat no one had been able to convince an All Blacks’ crowd to do during the last Lions tour of New Zealand.
And here by The Spinoff’s Groupthink department.
The whole thing reminded me of another all-timer event that happened in our fair city just a week or so ago. Dua Lipa packed out Spark Arena two nights in a row and delivered a live event experience so transcendent, so perfect and so damn fun that it was baffling to think that the last time she was here she was a mere opening act for Bruno Mars. I felt the same watching the Black Ferns – it is completely impossible to imagine them playing to a piddly afternoon crowd as a mere opening act for the All Blacks ever again. In the world of Dua Lipa herself, it feels like we’ve suddenly got… new rules (Amy Rule for one).
The majors were not without their moments, too.
Spare a thought for England, too, who didn’t win but played their part in changing women’s rugby forever, says The Guardian.
Everyone who attended the final left Eden Park saying the same things: the atmosphere was more family-friendly than the men’s equivalent, the players’ visible enjoyment and sense of adventure was delightfully infectious and the game itself had fewer stoppages, barely any box kicks and a refreshing lack of caterpillar rucks and reset scrums. In many ways it felt like a springboard to a new age of rugby enlightenment.
The All Blacks win against Scotland wasn’t joyless in comparison to the World Cup final. In fact it was weird and strangely compelling in its own right.
The All Blacks were incredible for seven minutes, absolute tosh for the next 58, and ruthlessly efficient for the final 15.
It was the sort of performance, where if a couple of bounces of the ball had gone the other way, talks of a full-blown crisis would have resurfaced - instead the All Blacks have won six tests in a row and go into their final test of the year against England at Twickenham knowing a win will earn them an improbable pass mark for 2022.
About those 58 minutes though. It had all the hallmarks of a first-test-of-the-year performance. A whole lot of nervous energy propelled them to a 14-0 lead and then reality sets in.
While the individual pieces are fine, I’m not sure that’s a backline configuration we ever need to see again, though it would be nice to see Mark Telea, who suddenly looks like the second-best option out wide behind the injured Will Jordan, get another opportunity against England.
Beauden Barrett, David Havili and Anton Lienert-Brown looked like three blokes thrust together on the same table at a distant relative’s weddings desperately trying to find some common ground to break the awkward silences. There was no synergy on attack and defensively, whenever Scotland moved the ball right towards Caleb Clarke’s wing, huge chunks of territory was the automatic result.
Perhaps this backline configuration is being primed for the match against Uruguay next year, but even then I wouldn't trust it.
At the very least it gives you pause for thought when TJ Perenara, assumed by many to have played his final test in Ireland last year, is credited with getting the team back on track from the bench.
Afterwards, we were treated to a bit of classic coachspeak gobbledegook, per the NZ Herald ($).
“We’re delighted to come to Murrayfield. It’s always a game we’ve found difficult, particularly this year against a Scottish team that is on the rise. They’ve won some big tests the last few years so it was one we were a bit nervous about,” said Ian Foster.
Always found difficult? The All Blacks first played Scotland in 1905. They are yet to lose to them.
If Scotland had held on, can you just imagine the noise as the Scott Robertson-coached Barbarians beat a team called the “All Blacks”.
There was a ridiculous amount of sport over the weekend, most of which I missed through foreseen circumstances.
It feels like forever ago that the Kiwis put on their best display of the World Cup, but ran out of gas just when they needed a final burst of energy, losing 14-16 to the Kangaroos.
An emotional Michael Maquire wondered what might have been had the bounce of the ball gone their way, and well he might because a day later Samoa turned on an upset for the ages.
Driving back into Auckland on Sunday afternoon via the Southern Motorway and seeing the flags out the car windows is always a heartwarming sight. It was even warmer in the heart of Otara.
I don’t give Samoa a prayer of beating Australia, but then again I didn’t give them a prayer of beating England, having previously lost 6-60 to the same team a month ago!
Joelle King has played in the shadow of Paul Coll in recent years, but it was her afternoon yesterday. King beat Wales’ Tesni Evans, while Coll fell to Mohammed ElShorbagy in their respective NZ Open finals.
“It was a tournament I’ve been waiting for so long to play in front of my fans and family, who haven’t seen me play since I was a little girl,” King said.
England recovered from losing to Ireland to win the World T20, which feels about right. They’re certainly the most full-throttle batting outfit in the world right now. There’ll be more cricket in midweek (along with a look at some interesting yarns from the weekend that aren’t live sport driven), with the Black Caps squads to face India in three T20Is and three ODIs released tomorrow. It will be intriguing to see if there are any “new directions” pursued.
Israel Adesanya lost, but wants more.
Rolling mauls are a bit of a blight on the game IMHO, it just seems impossible to stop them legally which seems wrong. On another note though, having watched more women's sport this year because of the free to air coverage (rugby and cricket), I've enjoyed the different skill set and rawness of play which they bring. The fact they feel (and are allowed to be) more authentic brings another dimension to the sport.
1 line on Adesayna while even though he lost showed up a lot better than our men in black