Kate Hawkesby: The power of the Black Ferns' World Cup win

How good was that rugby Saturday night?

I could not take my eyes off it. And I’m not a rugby person, I haven’t really followed the Black Ferns season too closely, I only switched the game on when it was 14 nil to England and I thought oh here we go, it’s going to be a walk in the park for the English. You know, good on us for getting this far, but we can’t win this with the way they just walk us backwards over the line.

But then... then the game turned... it was riveting. It was edge of the seat screaming from the sofa material. The very best kind of rugby. You could tell, even from home, that the atmosphere at Eden Park was electric. The crowds, the noise, the chanting, it was the perfect night. I was so happy for the Black Ferns – because they looked so happy, because they were underdogs going in, because they never saw their rugby dream going this far, and because they were actually doing it. But I was also thrilled for coach Wayne Smith – I mean what a way to finish up a career. He said it was “the most phenomenal moment of his career,” how awesome. He said he’s “never been more proud of any team he’s coached”. Not surprised. He can sail back into retirement a happy and fulfilled man, a hero. What a way to go out.

There are lots of lessons here for the All Blacks too. The Black Ferns cohesion, their confidence, their attacking game, the sheer love of it. Their enthusiasm's infectious... they took the whole country with them and you really felt like they were playing for all of us.

The phenomenal outpouring of support for them and the way New Zealand got behind them, magic.

Smith said it’ll go down as one of the great experiences of his life. A rugby expert was cited in one article over the weekend saying this team has ‘changed the face of rugby’... by bringing “legions of new fans to the game at a time when grassroots and school boy rugby has been in decline.” Professor Jennifer Curtin, a rugby researcher, said, “they’ve cured New Zealand women’s rugby as something that can no longer be ignored or potentially underfunded...” She also said they'd ‘changed the face of the traditional rugby crowd.’

It’s funny because it did feel like a different kind of energy, even from watching it on the couch you could tell something different was going on. Curtin claimed they brought, “a different kind of enthusiasm, potentially one that might rejuvenate the code as a whole.”

And how incredible would that be? The power of not just this win, but also the way the whole campaign went, and how much it swept up everybody along with it. That’s a phenomenal achievement for the players, the supporters, the coaches, Wayne Smith, Graham Henry, the mentors, the helpers... they can all take pride in this.

So the pressure is on New Zealand Rugby now isn’t it? How to capitalize on this success, how to keep up momentum, how to invest in it properly. Because we now know without a shadow of a doubt, that they’ve earned that, and they deserve that.

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