An all-time great, Kelly Brazier's 2010 World Cup kickstarted a rugby career to be envious of...

FOR A girl who used to get picked on for playing rugby back in Dunedin, Kelly Brazier has sure silenced the haters.

- JOE ROBINSON

Now 35, and happily married to her partner Tahlia with two young kids, she is winding down on a career that leaves her as one of the most decorated women’s rugby players of all time. Her achievements include two Sevens World Cup titles, a Commonwealth gold medal, Olympic gold medal and two 15s World Cups, the first of which was the 2010 final when the New Zealand Black Ferns beat England on English soil - and she kicked the winning points the age of 20. Not bad for someone “who grew up in a little town as the only girl playing rugby”.

That World Cup in 2010, the last women’s tournament held in England until later this year, was very much the making of Brazier’s career. The baby of the squad, her Test journey was only a year old. It was a two-Test series in England in 2009 when she was awarded her first caps. A 16-3 win at Esher was followed by a 10-3 loss a week later at Twickenham. Taking the field after the All Blacks played the England men’s team, those 12,500 fans who stuck around for the fixture set an attendance record for a women’s International that day. How things have changed.

From there, Brazier was nominated for New Zealand Women’s Player of the Year, all but securing her spot in the Black Ferns squad for the 2010 World Cup. And by the time the tournament rolled around, Brazier was a central piece of the team that once again was joint favourites with hosts England.

“The hype for the World Cup was crazy,” she tells Rugby World. “I was living with Carla Hohepa in Dunedin at the time and we were pretty much the only ones in the Black Ferns who were from Otago. I remember the excitement of being named and then flying to England.

“You could feel the tension. We were the two favourites and as you saw from 2009, there was never a big margin against the English.”