D'Arcy Waldegrave: Sportstalk host on Portia Woodman-Wickliffe re-signing with NZR

A switch to rugby league is almost certainly off the table for rugby great Portia Woodman-Wickliffe.

The three-time Olympic sevens medalist is emerging from international retirement to have a crack at adding to her two Rugby World Cup gold medals later this year.

Woodman-Wickliffe had a move to the NRL-W blocked this year due to her ambassadorial role for union's premier event.

Sportstalk host D'Arcy Waldegrave explains further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nineteen past four, Darcy water Grave sports to hold on. No,
he's still hold on. He's trying to kill his phone. There, Yeah,
okay that yes, there we are. There is You didn't
have to pause, just like post faked it until you
made it right, Porsche unretired P double dub with all
of that or not? Yeah? Why not? Yeah, okay, there

(00:20):
you go. I don't think it'll stick. None of my
other nicknames do. So this one pusha dubbed dub, pusha
dub dub. Yeah that sounds P double dub, P dubbed
up P dub dubyah doesn't matter. Well, she was going
to go and play rugby league, yeah, and then they
didn't want to. And it was they didn't want to
because she's had commitments as a ambassador if you will,

(00:41):
so they're like, no, we're not going to register you.
So so she carried just have an abundance of excellent players.
Then if they were going to turn her up, she's
one of the greats of the game. Yeah, male or female,
doesn't matter. I still can't work that out. On stunned
that they wouldn't want to name like that. That that's fine,

(01:02):
that's all right. You make your decisions. So she's playing
the opiki, doing particularly well in the senate role for
the Blues. Then they win that champions match and she's
just having the time of her life. And then of
course all the noises that he come back to come back.
Alan Barnteing, their coach, has been on various news channel's
TV stations, has coming back while we're having constructive conversation's

(01:23):
coming back. So today she's come back to eight month
contract after you're going to come back. Whether she plays
thirteen or out on the wing, it doesn't matter. Having
someone of her strength ability to prepare the money she has,
that's skill that everything about poor shirt Woodman Wickcliffe is
immense in this game. So to climb back in the

(01:45):
volt again you think of the other players. Look, she's
got to get picked. Sure she will the other ones
and retire. Unless she got picked, well, I don't know
if they can promise that, yeah, we're going to pick you. Well,
why wouldn't you first on the name? Even when she
wasn't signed, they probably would have tried to pick it.
So good something. What is the Premier's played for? What
does all get it for? Well, the Premier's plate is Okay,

(02:08):
So the concept of leagues and sport normally is like
the EPL, right, the English Premier League. Everybody plays each
other home and away. You get to the end of
the season, whoever's got the most points wins the league. Yeah,
pretty simple, right? Ah? No, No, no league's been hijacked
by a lot of people. And now is the A
Leagues not actually a league? Because once you win the

(02:29):
A League, which is what the Premier has played for
through the playoffs, and then you win the A League.
But you win the A League by winning the league?
What is that? So are you telling me in their
debut season, debut season, they have come out and they
have won the A League. It looks like it's on
its way over in a plane apparently, and it's going
to be celebrated. They struggle to blow this and I

(02:50):
really hope I'm not the kiss of death on them,
but you'd think the way they've traveled, what they've done,
it's been phenomenal what to start, and you'd think that
the Premier play as years now, if they picked the
Premiers plate up, gives them a distinct advantage when it
comes to the semi finals. In the final, they get
the first week off, then they've got the choice because
the home and away semi we'll just give up, right.

(03:12):
I mean, if you come in and clock it, clock
the game in your first crack, you got to you
gotta do something else. Your old school space is yeah,
clock it, clocked it. Do you have a clock any
of those games from it? Not Defender first level, mate,
not even the first level Sonic, the Heachehog Try. It's
a wonderful time to be an Auckland football fan. If
you're a Phoenix fan, you're going. But there's another year,

(03:35):
don't worry. I mean the Wellington's used to being the
second rate year from Wellington, aren't you? No, not really,
not really, for got used to it came first rate,
first came home. What to Auckland. You're in Auckland for
a year, Okay, yeah's convenient, Thank you much. Shuffle doing.
I had a porter's going to join us on the
show tonight talk about pathways for sevens and fifteen's players,

(03:55):
because in the women's game there's still a bit of
a collision around where they play, who they re scene
and so on and so forth. So we'll talk with
Hannah about that and dud Flag is going to join
usitting in the show talk about his new role the
associate head coach of the Breakers. They're getting all the
old crew back together. It's like the Blues Brothers. We're
getting the band. How Off You Go? Downsin water Grave

(04:16):
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