The Strike Weapons of '98
A guest post by former Black Fern Melodie Robinson, celebrating the best back three you might never have seen.
I can’t tell you with precision the first time I met Melodie because I’m pretty sure it involved drinking Belgian lager - which was an exotic experience for New Zealanders around the turn of the century - out of large glasses in a pub full of journalists and rugby admin-type peeps in Brisbane. Or maybe it was Sydney? The venue isn’t really important. What I remember more clearly is Mel filling the space in any conversation that might have been floundering with wild and sometimes scurrilous stories, asking probing and yet somehow never offensive questions and possessing an obvious enthusiasm for life.
As a broadcaster and personality she is a force of nature and continues to be so as the general manager of sports and events at TVNZ and the founder of Wonderful Group, an organisation created to increase the participation of women in the sports media industry.
It is sometimes lost that Mel was also a two-time World Cup winner as a flanker and has remained a staunch advocate for women’s rugby ever since. After watching the Black Ferns overcome Australia on Saturday thanks in large part to the skills of their wings, she cast her mind back to remember and celebrate the best back three she’s ever seen.
- Dylan Cleaver
With the Portia & Ruby Show on full display during the Black Ferns’ World Cup-opening victory over Australia at Eden Park on Saturday, it reminded me of how great our outside-back talent has been.
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 and 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.
Her try-scoring average was an unbelievable 2.69 tries every test she played. She still sits on top of the Black Ferns tries leaderboard and holds the single-game record – nine against France back in 1996, and score four in the World Cup final in ‘98 against the USA.
And can I just say that my role as a loose-running No6 was often to “just pass the bloody ball to Vanessa”.
She was an age-grade soccer and touch star, and actually played in one of 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. You can see the highlights on Facebook where another fantastic Black Ferns wing Mere Kingi - currently on the Māori Rugby board - features.
Cootes is not a person 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.
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 standard three at St Joseph’s, Kaikoura. 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, too, on our way to the 1998 World Cup 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.
Finally, our ultimate over-achiever - Louisa Wall.
Wall was 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 be 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.
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 to her and the Richards sisters, me, Annaleah Rush, and Hannah Porter 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 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 an 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 a 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 scored seven tries at the 1998 World Cup - an astonishing achievement.
Thank you.
You rock.
See you at the games.
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