Wayne Smith’s autobiography: Extract from Smithy: Endless Winters & The Spring of ‘22 - How the Black Ferns beat England in the Rugby World Cup

Wayne Smith addresses the Black Ferns as they plot their path to World Cup glory. Photo / Photosport

When Black Ferns coach Wayne Smith joined the team less than a year out from the 2022 Rugby World Cup the task ahead was massive. In his new autobiography, Smithy: Endless winters and the spring of ‘22, the coaching genius shares the inside story of winning the final against England.

The Impossible Dream

The gap to make up between the Black Ferns and England in the final of the Cup looked huge. England went into the match having won their previous 30 tests. They’d scored 99 points in two games against the Black Ferns the year before.

It was a daunting challenge, but one we were up for.

We knew that our attacking plays would work, but the big question was whether we could handle the rest of the game at a high enough level to win. What you can never discount is what a home crowd at Eden Park of 42,579 does for you. And you can never discount the fact that, even under massive pressure, we were the only ones playing the way we were playing.

We now knew that we could play an action-packed, ball-in-hand, attacking game. One thing I had a niggling concern about after the French game was whether, if we were in a situation where we needed to close out a game, we could change our attacking mindset and shut things down.

Smithy: Endless Winters & The Spring of ‘22. By Wayne Smith and Phil Gifford

Our wāhine toa saw an opportunity to run at every turn, and regardless of the situation, they would take it. We were lucky to get through that French game. We had the chance to take a safe option at the death, and almost didn’t.

Finally, I thought, We have just got to go with this. Keep doing what we’ve been doing. Bring in new plays that we’d been practising for this occasion. Keep attacking and accept the outcome. If it worked, it worked. If it didn’t, we still would have had a lot of fun.

We knew certain things about England. We were going to struggle to stop their maul. Our game plan essentially was based around having no penalties awarded against us, which would mean no lineouts for them.

Every time you gave a penalty away, they kicked for touch. And every time they kicked for touch, they got a driving opportunity.

I’m an evidence-based coach and I’ve got to do my homework; I’ve got to get my detail. I don’t trust my initiative very often; instead, I tend to back my research.

Graham Henry and I had examined every single game England had played since that end-of-year tour. We had done heaps of analysis. We were also helped by a very intelligent young woman named Grace Brooker. Grace probably would have been at the Cup as a midfielder if she hadn’t ruptured her patellar tendon playing against England at Northampton the previous November.

When we had been down in Canterbury at our camps, Grace was always training in our gyms. I had a cup of coffee with her one morning and was very impressed with this young woman and her ideas on the game.

Whitney Hansen said to me, ‘She’s a really smart analyst, Smithy’. Ted and I were looking at the games from an overall view. Whitney, Mike Cron and Wes Clarke were also doing great analysis in their particular areas.

On Whitney’s advice, we got Grace to scout our opponents in upcoming games, and we were able to compare this with what Ted and I saw. It turned out she was putting exactly the same clips up as Ted and I were. We were all on the same page.

We focused mainly on France and England, and decided to hide our plans, by not using the plays against Wales in the quarterfinal.

Kendra Cocksedge: Graham got really emotional in a huddle at our captain’s run before the final. He came in and then had to stop talking.

Three minutes into the final, their fullback, Ellie Kildunne, scores a very good try. We were expecting a maul from a lineout. Instead of that, from 35 metres out from our line they run it down the left touchline, recover the ball, take it through four phases, and swing it wide across their backline, until Kildunne has enough space to run in the try.

The spotlight had always been on how good their maul was, so it was easy to overlook the fact they’ve got some of the best backs in the world. Usually they never used them because their maul was so effective. In the way we couldn’t stop seeing an attacking opportunity in every situation, they couldn’t stop seeing the possibilities of the maul.

Their second try came when they won a lineout halfway between our goal-line and the 22, and just went straight up the guts. Their hooker, Amy Cokayne, scored. We’re down 14–0.

During the week, Portia Woodman, an incredible woman and player, had been on fire at training. We’d had a talk in the days before the final. I said, ‘Portia, you’re the quickest woman in the world, but you keep ducking in rather than taking them on, on the outside’. She said, ‘Since I’ve been injured, I’ve got no confidence in my speed’.

Black Ferns legend Portia Woodman in actin against Wales at the Rugby World Cup. Photo / Photosport

In 2018 Portia had torn her Achilles tendon, and not long after that injury had healed, she had to rehab a torn hamstring. I watched her closely at training, and that whole final week she was working on her speed. This is a hugely determined woman with a real rugby brain.

The first time she got the ball in the final she skinned their fullback, Kildunne, on the outside. Then came the head-high tackle from England wing Lydia Thompson. To this day, Portia remembers nothing of the match. She was down and unconscious.

They get the red card, and it handicaps them a lot. We’d lost one of the best wings in the world in Portia, but we had Ayesha Leti-I’iga to come on. We’ve got riches there. There is very little difference between the two. Ayesha is our detonator.

We’ll soon see how smart Ruahei and the girls are. They knew straight away, and without instruction, the space was where Lydia Thompson had been. But first we start getting back into the contest with a try from a lineout maul.

The brilliant Mike Cron had said to me during the week, ‘Smithy, you know how England have got the best lineout, and best maul in the world?’ I said, ‘I know that, Crono.’ He said, ‘Well, they can’t defend one. So, I reckon we can score against them by mauling.’ Good on ya, Crono.

He was dead right. Georgia Ponsonby scored off the first one just a minute or so after Portia was injured.

The match started to even up. England roll another maul and score. After 22 minutes it’s 19–7 to England. But two minutes later we score down the left side. Ruahei wraps around Theresa Fitzpatrick and throws a long pass to Renee Holmes, who is in the line from fullback. She feeds Ayesha on the left wing, and Porirua’s pocket rocket is in for the try. Renee converts, to make it 19–14.

Then another English maul from a lineout. No surprise there. Cokayne scores again.

However, just before the break, Crono’s hopes for our maul are rewarded. We kick to the corner, win the lineout, dominate the drive, and Amy Rule peels away to score. England lead 26–19 at halftime.

I’ve rushed down and set up the tactical mat with the discs. With their wing off, it was obvious already where the space was going to be. But what I wanted to see was how their fullback and their blindside wing were working together to fill that red-card space.

It was clearly tiring them. Their fullback had to get to that outside channel, and the blindside winger had to get right across to cover the fullback position.

I met with the backs. Crono and Whitney had the forwards. Wes focused on defence. I finished by speaking briefly to the whole team, and then, just before they ran out, Ruahei said to the players, ‘We’re going to score on our left-hand side girls, because that’s where the space is. When they kick off, we’ve got to catch the ball cleanly. Then we set up a ruck, and we’re going to attack wide, to our left.’

It wasn’t me; it was Ruahei who plotted what was probably the try of the tournament.

Ruahei Demant. Photo / Photosport

England kicked off. Ruby Tui had her feet on the sideline to catch the ball. All she had ringing in her ears was, We’ve got to catch it, so we can attack straight away.

Ruby lifted her heels to make sure they weren’t touching the line, caught the ball and threw it in, which set up the ruck. We attacked wide to the left. Stacey Waaka broke free 70 metres from the tryline. She’s shadowed by Renee Holmes, who takes an inside pass 30 metres inside England’s half. Stacey keeps backing up outside her. Renee then demonstrated, in one play, all the skills we’d been working on.

Run straight? Tick. Get as close as you can to the defender, in this case England’s fullback Kildunne, before you pass? Tick. If you need to, then pass off the wrong foot or with your foot in the air? Tick. As she passed back to Stacey, both of Renee’s feet were off the ground.

Pass from your hip and get it done quickly? After the pass, block the defender, so they can’t recover and tackle the receiver? Tick.

Renee did everything that we’d practised for months in that one try. It was the most pure and perfect example of what we were trying to do. Stacey dashes over the line, and scores about two centimetres from the dead-ball line. It’s a Sevens trait. In the box I was wishing and hoping: Don’t go back upstairs and have a look at this. Thankfully, she was actually in.

Her grin summed it up. They were having fun. Even in a World Cup final, the girls were excited and joyful, with the freedom to attack.

We continued to offload. To run. I think Ruahei had more offloads in that game than some teams had in the whole tournament. We were covering both sides of the field, going back to the blind quite a bit, running their backfield defence around.

Krystal Murray had come on at prop. She scored in the corner. Initially she had the ball in the wrong hand — inside hand. She was hit as she got the ball, but she’s so tough and strong, she readjusted the ball to her outside hand for the try.

After 49 minutes we’re finally ahead, 29–26.

Five minutes later England take the lead again. They win a scrum penalty, kick to the corner, and, as every man, woman and child in the crowd could have predicted, Cokayne scores her third try from a maul. England ahead, 31–29.

But away from the scoreboard, we were starting to dominate. We’d attack and attack to one side, switch to the other, then switch back again.

We talked at halftime about the girls remembering where that space was for a kick, how their fullback and their blindside wing would get fatigued, having to run to cover both sides.

Our brilliant 12, Theresa Fitzpatrick, who I don’t think has ever kicked in her life, remembered the discussion, saw the space, and put a grubber through.

Only Stacey Waaka could have set up the try that followed. As she goes to gather the ball, she gets one of the worst ankle injuries you can ever imagine, a high ankle sprain. Then, she dives for the line, already in agony from coming down on that ankle so heavily. It still amazes me how she had the presence of mind to give the offload to Ayesha Leti-I’iga, who brilliantly caught the low ball and scored the winning try.

Stacey limps off with a big grin on her face, but it took her three months to get over what was a major injury.

Nine minutes to go, ahead 34–31, we’ve just got to hold on. But there’s no dour, stand-by mode in this team. The end is in sight, and we get awarded a penalty on our 10-metre line. Ruahei gets the ball and I’m thinking, If you can kick it down to the 22, we get the ball to the lineout, and win this game. I’m confident at this point that we’ve come from nowhere, and we’ve got this won.

As Ruahei is lining up to kick for touch, Kendra calls, ‘Find it’. It’s a call I’d brought into the Black Ferns from my time with Dave Rennie at the Chiefs. Aaron Cruden, who was a real architect of our attack at the Chiefs, would line up to kick for touch. One of the players out wide would call, ‘Find it’. It essentially punished teams who assumed we’d kick for a lineout. As they wandered back towards touch, Crudes would tap the ball, and off we’d go.

The Black Ferns loved the idea. But it was never expected to be called three minutes from fulltime in a World Cup final.

Ruahei, having an attacking mindset, decides to go with the tap. Unfortunately, England are well prepared for it. We get turned over. They attack. One of the girls gets penalised for going over the top in the ruck and, all of a sudden, they’ve got a penalty.

It’s down in their half, so they kick to our 22, and drive a maul. The only way at this point we can stop them is to infringe, so we take the maul down. Another penalty for England. Now the lineout is six metres from our goal-line. If they maul and score, we’ve lost the final.

We have three things going for us, however. One is that our lineout wizard, Joanah Ngan-Woo, has come on at lock for us. She’s a very smart woman who does things differently to most people. When she’s not playing rugby, she works at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, after having spent time at the National Assessments Bureau in Wellington, which gives advice to the government on national security.

Second, Whitney Hansen had presented during the week on England’s lineout. Essentially, she ran through the cues of where their ball was going to be thrown. I remember Whitney saying that Abbie Ward, the key jumper for England, would give a little, almost imperceptible nod to her hooker when she wanted the ball thrown to her.

Sometimes it is hard to focus on little things like that. But if anyone was going to see the cue, it was Joanah Ngan-Woo.

The third important event to occur is that Cokayne, the best English hooker, has been replaced by their reserve hooker. That means the best thrower in the world, and the best girl off the back of the maul in the world, has been replaced.

All three elements will be important by the end of the game.

England win the lineout. They drive, peel off the drive, and we infringe again. It’s the only way we can stop them.

I’m getting panicky at this point.

I scream into the mic to Mike Cron, ‘Crono, you’ve got to get someone up to contest the lineout. Get someone up!’ But I’d forgotten that Mike wasn’t on an earpiece. I’m screaming at the wrong person. Whitney grabs her mic and says, ‘Just tell Joanah to go up.’

Her instruction’s a bit better than mine. Down on the ground Renee Wickliffe gets the message to Joanah.

Joanah sees a wee nod from Abbie Ward. It is almost invisible, and you can’t see it on video replays. Joanah yells at her lifters to get ready. Krystal Murray is the front lifter, and Chelsea Bremner, the other lock, is behind her.

The fulltime hooter sounds, and the ball goes in. They get Joanah up, and she beats Ward to the ball. Krystal pulls out of the lift and grabs the ball as it comes down. She drives into a maul. Then referee Neville signals a knock-on by England.

The game’s over.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have been in a lot of winning boxes, but that would have been the most joyous I’ve ever been in — from the coaches to the analysts, it was just mayhem. Then I looked down at the ground and I’d never seen anything like it. The joy from the girls and the crowd and the reserves running on. The staff running on. Because it was unbelievable. We’d lived the impossible dream. Sometimes those things come true and that was the case for us.

The post-game celebrations are things I’ll never forget. I’ve been involved with winning two World Cups with the men, Super Rugby titles and club titles. But I’d never got myself into the traditional on-field photo before. I’ve always just been proud and left the photos to the players.

I made sure I was in that bloody photo at Eden Park! Honestly, I was so excited.

The first time I became fully aware of how massive the support was for the team was when the presentations were made. Normally, when it’s medal and cup presentations, most of the crowd has gone because they’re trying to avoid the traffic. This time the stadium was still full.

The first one to realise this was Ruby Tui, who, looking around, thought, Everyone is still here. They all know the song; let’s get cracking. Let’s start the party early! She grabbed the mic and started singing Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi. The crowd partied with her.

Ruby Tui celebrates with fans after the Rugby World Cup final. Photo / Getty Images

Alongside our wedding and the birth of our boys, this was one of the most memorable occasions of my life. I’m still pinching myself.

In my mind I kept going back to the start, when I’d said to the media, ‘Two days ago, I applied for the pension’.

We had to play the style of rugby we did because we had no show of success if we followed the herd. So, let’s be true to who we are. Let’s reinvent ourselves. Play like we want to play. Rugby is just a game. Games are meant to be fun, so let’s have fun.

And then, all of a sudden, we’ve won it!

Next day, there was a celebration with a big group of supporters at Auckland’s Te Komititanga Square by the ferry buildings.

Dame Farah Palmer, who had captained the Black Ferns to three World Cup victories, spoke, and she was brilliant. She even sang. I had to follow her. The girls put real pressure on me to dance, so, for what I’m sure will be the only time in my life, I moon-walked in public.

Then the team had a celebration together at Graham Henry’s place at Waiheke Island. It was a joyous occasion. We had a few drinks, but this is an orderly group. At 8.30pm we hopped into the vans that had turned up to get us all and caught the ferry back to Auckland. Then it was into the hotel, and home the next day.

Kendra Cocksedge: My most vivid memory is seeing Smithy and Graham Henry in tears on the Sunday after the World Cup final, as we were leaving Graham’s house. We all hugged them. It was a bit like leaving Dad and Grandad. That’s the emotion that comes with women’s rugby. It stays with you. Two grown men choking up.

Ruahei Demant: Obviously, I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. But like a lot of us in the team, playing a home World Cup was an all-time career highlight.

Extract from Smithy: Endless winters and the spring of ‘22, $49.99 RRP (Upstart Press), available now