The Black Ferns celebrate their win in the Rugby World Cup final. Photo / Dean Purcell
When Wayne Smith took over as Black Ferns head coach, one thing was clear — if they continued to try and play the same as the other major nations, they would not succeed.
After a tumultuous period that included four record defeats to England and France late last year, a damning cultural review and the resignation of head coach Glenn Moore, the Black Ferns were intent on starting afresh.
A move away from structure to unpredictability took place as the Black Ferns reinvented themselves this year.
“We’re changing the game. We don’t think we can play a traditional game and be successful,” Smith admitted at the World Cup squad selection in September.
“We don’t want to follow what other teams do; we want to be New Zealanders and reflect our country. We’re brought up on No 8 wire, you can fix a broken fan belt with a stocking — that’s us. I want us to be that sort of team and make the people really excited but proud of what we’re trying to do out there.”
It wasn’t an overnight fix. Their first match of the season — a 23-10 win over Australia in June’s Pacific Four tournament — showed how they would try to play under Smith and how far they had to go in mastering it, although heavy rain didn’t help.
The rugby was frantic and errors frequent but it was a sign of things to come. The Ferns beat world No 5 Canada 28-0 the following week and ran up 50 points against the United States in their final game of the tournament, showing they had embraced Smith’s vision.
At the tournament’s end, Smith praised the defensive structures of Wes Clarke, the development of the set piece under Whitney Hansen and the captaincy of Ruahei Demant.
For Demant, the team’s shift from 2021 to the Pacific Four tournament was obvious.
“We talk about defending like we’re defending our family, and that theme has really stuck with the girls,” she said after their final match of the mid-year competition.
“When we attack, we show we’re not scared. There’s no fear of making mistakes, and from where we’ve been in the past to where we are now, that shift in mindset is probably the biggest thing.”
During those months, plenty of players got an opportunity to represent the Black Ferns, while even more were invited to attend camps.
When the time came to pick the 32-strong World Cup squad, Smith had to make some tough phone calls, as surprise selections caught the headlines; several from the sevens set-up were picked despite having played little 15s during the year.
“It’s hard to measure them against existing players, so it was a bit of a task,” Smith said of the selections at the time. “One thing we know is that they fit. They have good speed, which is the sort of game we’re trying to play. They have good repetitive speed, good evasion skills, they can handle the ball really well and are world class.”
The Black Ferns had nothing to lose. Few expected them to win the World Cup, particularly given the strength of the England side Smith later hailed as the best of all time.
Any worries around World Cup selections were eased when the Black Ferns toppled Australia 41-17 in their opening match of the tournament. After Australia raced to a 17-0 lead, the Ferns switched into action, with the likes of Sarah Hirini, Portia Woodman and Stacey Fluhler making major contributions.
But concerns remained around their set piece, with an inability to defend rolling mauls that was frequently exposed in 2021 still exploited by opponents at the World Cup. That was illustrated in a 56-12 win over Wales, where the Ferns lost the physicality battle and had poor discipline.
Physicality up front was a hallmark of France and England and it looked likely the Black Ferns would have to beat both to successfully defend their World Cup title.
The lack of discipline against Wales irked Smith.
“It was really disappointing, and a lot of them are avoidable,” he said after the game. “It really annoys me when I see it. You do so much work during the week on staying up, hitting low, then you go out and do that. We’re not going to win this thing unless we get better in a lot of areas.”
That match was a turning point. In their final pool game against Scotland, the penalty count decreased considerably in a 57-0 victory, and that trend continued in their 55-3 quarter-final win over Wales.
It set up one of two showdowns that would really show how far the Black Ferns had come in 2022 — France in the semifinals.
The Ferns matched the French physically and put their blazing attack to use, cancelling out early French points before taking a late lead.
The game came down to one crucial moment: French first-five Caroline Drouin lined up a last-minute penalty to snatch the victory.
The way Drouin had been kicking during the tournament, the 35m attempt was well within her capabilities. But her kick drifted to the left of the posts and the Ferns hung on for a one-point win.
A team few expected to go all the way at the start of the year were making believers out of the New Zealand sporting public. They had one game to go — against an English side that had won 30 tests in a row.
But every streak must end, and a lineout steal from lock Joanah Ngan-Woo 5m from the Ferns’ own goalline after the final siren — a play that will likely go down as one of the greatest in New Zealand rugby history — halted England’s run in front of 42,579 fans at a sold-out Eden Park.
Both teams suffered a blow when Woodman copped a high shot from England wing Lydia Thompson, with the Kiwi forced off due to the head knock and the latter red-carded.
The Ferns looked capable of pulling off a famous comeback, with a pack possessing an effective maul of their own and a backline willing to strike from anywhere. England led 26-19 at halftime but that disappeared within 10 minutes of the restart.
Although New Zealand-born hooker Amy Cokayne put England ahead again after 55 minutes with her third maul try, the Black Ferns still had two moments of magic left.
The first was an inch-perfect kick from Demant, collected by Fluhler and offloaded to Ayesha Leti-I’iga to score what would prove the tournament-winning try.
The second was Ngan-Woo’s lineout steal. While a defensive play, it was a poetic way for the Black Ferns to return to the top of the world.
Their season had been about backing themselves and their ability playing the percentages, and with everything on the line, they still favoured that approach.
“I love these women, I love what they’ve had to do to get here, and I love the way that they’ve bought into everything we’ve done,” Smith said after the final, confirming he would stand down and return to retirement.
“This will go down as one of the great experiences of my life.”
After sending 141 athletes to 16 Olympics since 1952, New Zealand finally struck gold in the cold when Sadowski-Synnott put down a spectacular third run in the Beijing slopestyle final to seize gold in the most dramatic of circumstances.
Standing at the top of the Genting Snow Park course in the silver-medal position, ready to drop in for the 36th and concluding run in the 12-woman final, Sadowski-Synnott knew a near-perfect performance was required to make history.
And that was exactly what the 20-year-old delivered in the clutch, raising her arms high in the air after landing the second of the back-to-back 1080s she needed for gold.
At the bottom of the course, Sadowski-Synnott was mobbed by American Julie Marino and Australian Tess Coady, the three medallists celebrating with one another while the exact colour they would wear was still being determined.
Marino’s head must have been spinning as if she were still on her board, having earlier leaped ahead of Sadowski-Synnott and into the gold medal spot with her second run.
The Kiwi was unable to respond with her second attempt, ratcheting up the pressure on her third. But once the judges’ scores flashed on the scoreboard following that flawless run, Sadowski-Synnott’s place in the record books was secure.
Her score of 92.88 blew away Marino (87.68) and the rest of the competition, confirming her status as the dominant force in women’s snowboarding.
She added a silver medal nine days later in the Big Air to become the first New Zealander to win multiple medals at a Winter Olympics.
Ko finished the year at the top of women’s golf for the first time since 2017 on the back of winning the Tour Championship title.
It was a remarkable turnaround after slipping to 55th in the world in August 2020.
Ko first reached No 1 in 2015, holding the top spot from February 2 to June 14 for a total of 19 weeks, and last held the No 1 ranking for 85 weeks from October 2015 to June 2017.
The span of five years, five months and 17 days is the longest period between No 1 rankings.
In addition to being named the Race to the CME Globe champion, Ko earned Player of the Year honours for the second time in her career and captured the Vare Trophy, the award given to the player with the season’s lowest scoring average, for the second consecutive year. Ko finished 2022 with 25 points towards the LPGA Hall of Fame, two points away from the 27 necessary for induction.
Along with her three wins, Ko recorded nine other top-five finishes in 2022, including fifth at the US Open and a tie for third at the Evian Championship.
She finished the season leading the LPGA Tour in strokes gained total (2.500) as well as top-10 finish percentage (64 per cent).
The 25-year-old also won the 2022 official money title with US$4,364,403.
Fox had a career year on the DP World Tour including two victories and four second placings to finish the year second in the season standings behind world No 1 Rory McIlroy. Overall, he earned €3,365,304.74 ($5.4m), twice as much as he’d claimed before in a season after making 17 cuts of the 24 events he played in, with 10 top-10 finishes.
The highlight of the year was his victory at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in October against a field including the likes of McIlroy and US Open winner Matt Fitzpatrick.
It capped off a tumultuous few weeks for Fox after he withdrew from the lucrative BMW Championship with a knee injury before an airline lost his golf clubs en route to the French Open which didn’t turn up until the eve of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
It was also an emotional setting for Fox, who played alongside the late, great Australian cricketer Shane Warne for the past five years at the tournament in Scotland, which features amateurs grouped with professionals.
The win saw him surge to 25th in the world rankings, after starting the year in 213th, and guaranteed a spot in the Masters in April, in what will be his maiden appearance at the famed Augusta National course.
Gate went to the Commonwealth Games with one main goal — to win the team pursuit. On July 30, that goal was accomplished, and the 31-year-old had his first Games gold medal.
It was an accomplishment that on its own would have sent him home happy, but the ambitious cyclist was hopeful he could be a factor in his races to come.
Nine days later, Gate had heard the New Zealand anthem played four times — the first time a Kiwi has won four golds at a single Games. Following golds in the individual pursuit and the points race at the velodrome, his final victory was the most incredible of the lot, a stunning ride in the men’s road race that left even him, then a three-time gold medallist with plenty of self-belief, struggling to believe what had happened.
“I put my arms up and I didn’t really know if it had actually happened,” Gate said after beating Daryl Impey in a sprint.
Gate had infiltrated a 15-rider group that proved to be the winning move, with the breakaway, which featured a host of world-class riders who have shone on cycling’s World Tour, forming with 100km to go.
As the only Kiwi in the leading group, Gate closed down every dangerous move that went up the road, expending a seemingly endless amount of energy to drag back dangerous riders.
But, just as he had three times before, when it was time to cross the line, Gate got there first to etch his name into New Zealand Commonwealth Games history.
Almost four years to the day since he burst on the scene with bronze, the golden future that Nico Porteous promised came to fruition at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Porteous became New Zealand’s youngest individual Olympic champion in February by winning the freeski halfpipe.
It took only one exemplary run for the 20-year-old to add gold to the bronze he stunned this country to claim in the same event in 2018, moving up a couple of steps on the podium with effortless ease.
After keeping it hidden in his bag of tricks while qualifying in second place, Porteous immediately put down his trademark back-to-back double cork 1620s to record an opening score of 93.00.
Through three rounds, none of the other 11 riders could surpass what Porteous had displayed using an unmatched mix of agility, strength and style.
It was a spectacular combination that saw him soar to top spot, ahead of David Wise (90.75) in second, with older brother Miguel finishing 11th (63.50).
Porteous, the world and X Games champion, added the Olympic title in windy conditions that vexed many in a field featuring the world’s top 10 halfpipe skiers, making yet more Kiwi sporting history.
Only 17-year-old Simon Dickie, the cox of the men’s four who won gold at the 1968 Olympics, has claimed Olympic gold at a younger age.
Like in PyeongChang, when he eclipsed Sadowski-Synnott as New Zealand’s youngest medallist.
An astonishing first full season on the PGA Champions Tour was capped off by Alker finishing third at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship season finale at the Phoenix Country Club, and in doing so, securing the Order of Merit trophy and a US$1 million ($1.64m) bonus.
He finished the year with four victories, four second places and five thirds, a crazy run of finishing in the top three in 57 per cent of the events he entered and falling outside the top 25 just twice.
Remarkably, Alker had no tour status just 15 months ago. He had entered qualifying at the Boeing Classic, where he recorded a tie for seventh which started a run of six consecutive top 10 finishes, including a tournament victory in his penultimate event last year.
What followed is right up there with the best stories in golf this year.
It wouldn’t be unfair to say Alker was a journeyman throughout his PGA Tour career. He notched 86 starts and failed to record a top 10 finish, missing the cut 47 times. It was similar on the European Tour, where he had 80 starts for one top 10 and 42 missed cuts.
He finished the season with a scoring average of 68.2 in 75 rounds of golf, and by the time the Charles Schwab Cup Championship finale rolled around, only one player, Ireland’s Padraig Harrington, could catch him. But Alker just needed to finish in the top five among the 33-player field to deny the Irishman, who showed his class by winning the tournament by eight shots.
Andrews continued her rise on the velodrome, backing up her silver at the Tokyo Olympics with a dominant display in Birmingham — winning three golds and a silver.
She capped off the Commonwealth Games with a masterclass of power and strategy throughout the keirin.
In all three races, Andrews hit the front in the final laps and simply overpowered her opponents who were helpless to come past her.
Andrews added the keirin gold to her golds in the team sprint and individual sprint, as well as the silver medal she was credited with for helping out the team pursuit squad.
“I’m so overwhelmed,” Andrews said after her final gold. “I came here wanting to do my absolute best and leave everything out on the track, but I never could have imagined that this would be the final outcome.”
Of the many things an international rugby coach will ask of their players, two are of greatest importance. No 1: Go out there and win me a World Cup; No 2: Go out there and save my job. Without the dynamic Savea at No 8 for the All Blacks this season, coach Ian Foster’s hold on the top job would have been even more tenuous.
The Hurricanes loosie was the standout player and the most reliable contributor for the All Blacks throughout an erratic season pockmarked with disillusion and defeat that culminated in a disappointing draw.
While around him, the side often seemed confused, Savea was always crystal clear about his purpose. He was a rare consistent force in the side and the most likely source of creative impact — his muscularity, vision and handling often opened channels for team-mates, while his combativeness and the cool head he brought to the breakdown were vital in the All Blacks’ desperate efforts for parity.
He regularly topped the stats in the Herald’s judicious player ratings, and would surely have figured in World Rugby’s shortlist for Player of the Year but for better results.
The cyclist was never referred for a detailed psychological assessment.