Sporting triumphs

It was a year of redemption for some stalwarts of NZ sport - young and not so young, writes PAUL THOMAS.

- 

From a Kiwi perspective, no sporting event or achievement in 2022 came close to matching the women's Rugby World Cup. The Black Ferns' uplifting journey to becoming world champions gave rugby in this country a high-dosage shot in the arm - and, goodness knows, it needed one.

More significantly, it was a breakthrough moment for women's sport. The outpouring of support for the Black Ferns - spontaneous, uncomplicated, unqualified - upended the longstanding rationale for according women's sport second-class status: that it doesn't have a big enough public following to warrant the resources and media coverage lavished on men's sport.

The gripping final at Eden Park was played out in front of a 42,579-strong crowd, the largest ever for a women's rugby match. To put that in perspective, the entire 2017 tournament in Ireland attracted 45,412 spectators, an average of 1514 per game. The overall total for this year’s tournament was more than 140,000. Some 1.3 million New Zealanders watched the final on television.

While not quite an overnight sensation, the luminous Ruby Tui established herself as one of the most engaging athletes, male or female, of recent times, and quite possibly our most marketable contemporary rugby player. Tui was

World Rugby's women's 15-a-side Breakthrough Player of the Year, while co-captain Ruahei Demant won the women's Player of the Year award. Several of their teammates are well on the way to also becoming household names.

Master coach Wayne Smith won the Coach of the Year award, fitting recognition for what was, perhaps, the greatest achievement of his illustrious career. Given that the three World Cup-winning All Black coaches - Brian Lochore, Graham Henry and Steve Hansen - were knighted, it's unthinkable that the same honour won't be bestowed on Smith, assuming he would accept it.