Moments after the Black Ferns secured their place in the Rugby World Cup final, super-fan and rugby commentator, Alice Soper posted a video of her tear-streaked face to social media. Soper was overcome – not just because the nail-biting final minute could have gone either way for the New Zealand women’s team, but because the Black Ferns’ win represented something much greater.
“I was crying about women’s rugby winning, because I knew we needed to have the Black Ferns in the final for [the tournament] to be a spectacle, and to have the opportunity to the put the biggest show on in town,” Soper says.
“It’s not just about the team, it’s about a whole bunch of us out here who have been grafting away for the longest time, doing it in the shadows … to have that moment we can all be proud of and say: look how good we are.”
One million New Zealanders tuned in to watch the Black Ferns’ 25-24 semi-final victory against France last weekend – five times the number who tuned into the 2017 final between the Black Ferns and England. By the next morning, the country’s largest stadium – Auckland’s Eden Park – was well on its way to selling out its 40,000 tickets to the final against England’s Red Roses. By Wednesday, it had – putting the match on track to break the world record for the largest crowd to attend a women’s rugby match.
Based on these numbers, it would be easy to assume that women’s rugby in New Zealand is a well-supported, well-viewed sport. But despite rugby being the national sport – and the country’s women’s teams dominating the international playing field (the Black Ferns have won five of the past six World Cups) – women’s efforts have been under-recognised, under-funded and under-supported.
New Zealand Rugby transitioned the professional women’s players to a full-time employment model this year, but according to news outlet Stuff there is still a 73% pay gap between the women’s team and the All Blacks. Meanwhile, the team will not receive bonuses if they win the World Cup, despite each All Blacks player being awarded NZ$134,000 for their 2015 Cup victory – a bonus that exceeds some of the women’s salaries.
The recent, unprecedented, interest from the public should serve as a wake-up call to “all the old boys in the boardroom” of New Zealand’s rugby institutions, Soper says.
“Men’s sports are funded based on potential, women’s sports are funded based on results. Well that is a result, to sell out Eden Park.”
— Alice Soper (@alicesoapbox) November 5, 2022
Black Ferns player and the captain of the sevens team, Sarah Hirini, says building on the team’s extraordinary momentum and maintaining that public attention would mean “everything” to the players.
“This is what we have been wanting for a very long time, and now, I think, people are just turning up to the party, which is awesome,” she says.
“It’s not just for us – it is for the next generation of players, it’s for other women’s sports who are still wanting this.”
‘Bringing the joy back’
The team is attracting a new fanbase: some who have never engaged with the sport before and others who are rugby diehards excited to see the game being played “old-school” – fast, brutal and with a sense of joy.
For burgeoning fan, Erin Harrington, the semi-final was the first time she had watched a rugby game out of choice. Since school, the Ōtautahi/Christchurch-based academic and arts critic had found the culture surrounding men’s rugby, and much of men’s sport in general, to be “really alienating”.
I am sure I am not the only one watching the RWC semi wondering 'all this time have I liked sport, just not ... men's sport?'
— Erin Harrington's restless spirit (@ladyhorrors) November 5, 2022
“I know it’s not representative of all players and fans, but my experience has been one of toxicity and sexism, often fuelled by alcohol, made worse by the widespread notion that women’s sport in general is inherently inferior.”
It came as “a complete revelation to see these incredible women, of all shapes and sizes, being physical and powerful on their own terms, and with such a sense of joy”, Harrington says.
A professor specialising in the sociology of sport at the University of Auckland, Toni Bruce has been researching this growing fandom as part of a broader attempt to understand the relationship between nationalism and rugby in New Zealand.
For years Bruce has been conducting surveys about the public’s attitude to the men’s Rugby World Cup, but this is the first year she is running a survey about the women’s tournament. Just under 200 people have completed the survey so far, and already strong themes and differences in attitudes towards the women’s games are evident.
“Everyone is talking about the style the Black Ferns play and the spirit in which they play,” Bruce says. “People are picking out that their style is an open, running rugby, it is attacking rugby, they play to the ball not the referee, it is fun and it is exciting.”
Overwhelmingly, the descriptions of the women’s game play were positive compared to how the public viewed the men’s style which included “too many scrums, playing to the referee not the ball, and a lot of stoppages”.
“There are a lot of people who have followed men’s rugby for a long time and they have been feeling disillusioned by it. Women’s rugby is somehow bringing the joy of the game back to the forefront,” she says.
The spirit with which the women’s team approached the game was also different, according to those surveyed, Bruce says.
“People have talked about [the team’s] passion, that they’re authentic and they are open and real with the media – there’s no corporate speak, they are willing to be vulnerable.”
There is a special alchemy of factors sparking the explosion in interest, but Bruce believes some recent developments are spurring it more than others – proper television coverage and the women’s rugby sevens team getting into the Olympics (and winning gold). In turn, this has given charismatic players such as Ruby Tui a chance to foster fandom and connection between the team and the public.
‘Chance for a reset’
Women have long been rugby supporters and players, says Jennifer Curtin, a professor of politics and public policy at the University of Auckland who has researched women’s engagement with the sport. There are photographs of women playing in the 1890s, Curtin says, and as well as cheering from the sidelines, their support has included countless hours of invisible labour: fundraisers, advocacy, and domestic and emotional support for players.
“My hope with this World Cup is that we don’t forget – that there isn’t a collective – or New Zealand Rugby – amnesia about this moment, or this level of turn out and passion for the women’s game.”
Curtin hopes this Rugby World Cup will help the team secure the respect and investment they deserve, while Soper adds that as well as being the right thing to do, it would offer New Zealand Rugby the chance for a “relational reset”.
“Women’s rugby doesn’t come with all the baggage attached to men’s – there is a toxic masculinity attached to that culture – but that’s not the space at a women’s game.”
Fostering that visibility and breaking stereotypes within physical sport matters, she says. “I’ve got nothing in common with Richie McCaw [the former All Blacks captain], so I’m never going to feel emotionally connected to him.
“There are a lot of people out there saying: ‘I don’t like rugby, but I do like women’s rugby, and I like how they are playing – it’s good, it’s honest, and that reminds me of what rugby used to be.’”
