One that saw a player step up just as the women’s game was finally finding its feet. Who fended her way into our living rooms and our collective consciousness. The first winger since Jonah to be known by a single name. Portia was the first of her kind and hopefully will be the last.
Woodman-Wickliffe was an athlete found in the nationwide talent search which was the Go For Gold Programme of 2012. Marking the first time New Zealand Rugby had actively and aggressively recruited women into their sport. Such action was necessary, given their unwise and untimely decision to cut women’s international sevens a decade earlier.
The resilience of the women’s rugby community and their champions, such as Peter Joseph, kept the game alive when the governing body wasn’t interested. These players then helped to transition the converts such as Woodman-Wickliffe.
Their collective success now makes it unthinkable that New Zealand Rugby would ever field just a men’s team again.
Woodman-Wickliffe and her peers in this cohort were the first true professional wāhine rugby players in Aotearoa. From $2000 a tournament to fulltime contracts.
It wasn’t just the money they earnt but the lessons that they learned to successfully transition a player group and their environment from amateur to professional. They were the experiment that paid off for all women who now receive a pay cheque for playing the game.
Twelve years at the top of her game, Woodman-Wickliffe and the original Sevens Sisters have paid back that investment tenfold. The demands of the short-form sport, so rigorous that the average player’s lifespan could fit into her career three times over.
We likely won’t see another player spend this long in the programme; not now that talent is regularly being developed to replace and other opportunities are calling.
Woodman-Wickliffe’s impressive international career has broken records across formats. At one time being both the top try scorer at the Rugby World Cup and on the World Sevens circuit.
In this way she is unique and most likely the last of her kind. The New Zealand Rugby strategy of subsiding development by calling their sevens players into World Cup squads appears to be coming to an end. With the growing opportunities for fifteens players, both domestically and in the international schedule, specialisation is going to become the norm.
During her time in the black jersey, Woodman-Wickliffe expressed herself freely on and off the field. Establishing herself as a new type of rugby role model. This out and proud staunch wāhine Māori from small town Kaikohe, found strength in her identity. This authenticity had broad appeal and broadened our expectations of what a New Zealand Rugby player looked like.
Woodman-Wickliffe helped break the mould, this game now as much Ruahei’s as it was Richie’s.
Portia Woodman-Wickliffe was our first women’s international superstar. A talent finally afforded a proper stage, she shone so brightly that even the traditionalist couldn’t help but take notice. Beleaguered coach, Sean Horan, had instructed his side to be like Portia. She instead inspired players to find their own strength. Woodman-Wickliffe leaves a team without a replacement. There’s no longer one but many stars in our future.
After the Paris Olympics, we bid farewell to Woodman-Wickliffe in a black jersey. A player that first brought the world’s attention to the team that wore it. Who helped forge the era of professionalism and carved a new path for players and fans to follow.
When she retires, it will be the last time we will see a player scale mountains like she did. Because her legacy has put the women’s game on top.
