Winners and Losers: Portia Woodman-Wickliffe captures best of Black Ferns spirit

The gold medal-winning Black Ferns sevens squad: 'Their generosity of spirit, their openness, will live long in the memory'. Photo / Photosport

WINNER: Repeat Olympic gold medallist Portia Woodman-Wickliffe... and this dilemma

Her post-final interview in Paris was every bit as good as the game.

Rugby sevens has been the star of the Olympics so far. Huge and vibrant crowds watched open-field rugby played in the skilful spirit that can make the game so captivating. The tactics were fascinating and discernible, unlike XVs rugby.

The Black Ferns’ gold-medal win, over an impressively resilient Canadian team, was the farewell for the retiring Woodman-Wickliffe and another sevens legend, Tyla King.

I’ve interviewed a number of our women rugby stars over the years, including Woodman-Wickliffe, and their generosity of spirit, their openness, will live long in the memory.

Some of them have been amazing pioneers, dogged amateurs who won the first professional rugby contracts for Kiwi women.

Making it to the top has been a tough haul, both on sporting and personal levels.

They operate in a vacuum of sorts, because sevens rugby only hits the headlines now and then and XVs has virtually no profile. The women have been much-loved rugby outliers.

Woodman-Wickliffe’s interview from Paris was a gem. She adjudged herself terrible in the final, for a yellow-card tackle and another penalty.

Her initial life aims from here: lying on the couch, eating fast food and producing babies.

There is a light that emanates from the women’s team, and nowhere more so than from Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, the try-scoring ground-breaker.

Portia Woodman-Wickliffe waves to supporters after New Zealand beat Canada in the gold medal match. Photo / Photosport

Perhaps she is looking forward to life away from the public view.

She will be missed. But let’s hope she isn’t, completely. Which leads to...

WINNER: Olympic Sevens... but

France has lifted rugby to a new Olympic level.

It also confirmed the rise of Canada and the United States in the women’s game.

Canada’s resilience under pressure in the final was superb. By the next Olympics, New Zealand may be clinging to glory against a North American surge based on power players.

There have been massive crowds for the men’s and women’s matches, and a terrific buzz around the game.

This atmosphere is in contrast to the loud moans and groans in XVs rugby.

How is rugby trying to turn the tide?

Moves are being made to get next year’s women’s World Cup XVs, hosted by England, on free-to-air television.

The Olympic Games have given the sport a great lift, and it feels like another watershed moment for women’s rugby.

Quirky American star Ilona Maher has just become the rugby player with the highest number of Instagram followers, pipping the Springboks’ inspiring captain Siya Kolisi and French superstar Antoine Dupont.

It feels as if North America could transform women’s sevens, with social media at the heart of a revolution.

But New Zealand struggles to find these sorts of unique personalities who naturally draw people to them and can also sustain a major media presence.

LOSER: The planet

The postponement of the Olympic triathlon because of pollution in the Seine River is another bad day for those loony climate change deniers.

France has spent a decade and $2.5 billion sorting out its famous river, wrecked by untreated sewage.

But climate change is so severe that it caused heavy rain that overwhelmed the elaborate system this week, making the river unsafe for triathletes.

This comes during a week in which Air New Zealand axed its carbon emissions target for 2030.

WINNER: Air pistol celebrations

Air pistol has to be the most boring sport in the Games. But it was worth enduring some of the 10m mixed team final to watch Serbia’s gold medal celebrations. Zorana Arunovic and Damir Mikec wrestled on the ground in delight, after beating Turkey. Only at the Olympics.

LOSER: This protrusion

Olympians have caught the bug. Just about every sportsperson interviewed these days professes to “pride” in teammates etc.

“I’m so proud we stuck to our processes, blah, blah, blah.”

Expressions of pride are wearing very thin.