Black Ferns flanker Sarah Hirini couldn’t watch Caroline Drouin’s last minute penalty attempt to win the World Cup semifinal for France last Saturday. Instead, she looked straight ahead and said a few words to her late mother, Ronnie Goss.
“Honestly, I was actually saying to my mum, ‘don’t you let me lose something like this, this close to a final’… talking to her upstairs,” Hirini said.
“I knew that the crowd would react hopefully the way that I wanted and as soon as I heard cheers I thought ‘OK, I need to be somewhere else now’.”
Somewhere else on the field and, seconds later, officially into a World Cup final against England at Eden Park on Saturday following what was an agonising 25-24 semifinal victory.
It will likely be another emotional occasion.
Hirini’s mother died on her 53rd birthday in March last year, five months before her daughter won sevens gold for New Zealand at the Tokyo Olympics.
That triumph against France in the final contrasted with New Zealand’s defeat in this year’s Commonwealth Games final against Australia in Birmingham – a hugely disappointing moment for the Olympic champions - but Hirini said that experience had made her a better player at this World Cup.
“Probably the disappointment has pushed me to be better in the team and just give everything that I can but also to enjoy it,” she said.
“Things like this don’t come around very often and they can easily get taken away from you. I just want to enjoy all this week has to offer.”
There are all sorts of Black Ferns storylines as the side attempt to find redemption on Saturday after an extremely difficult last 12 months, but the success of Hirini’s transition back to the 15s game (along with Portia Woodman’s and Ruby Tui’s), is a significant one.
All three, along with fellow sevens players Theresa Fitzpatrick and Stacey Fluhler, have contributed enormously at this World Cup and they will all be crucial for a Black Ferns team attempting to break England’s streak – it’s currently at 30 consecutive victories.
“They are the team to beat and we’ve definitely talked about it like that,” Hirini said. “We know we have to do everything right. We know we can’t make basic errors like we probably did in that semifinal if we want to be England this weekend.”
Another storyline is the three former Feilding High School students playing in the final – Hirini, Black Ferns hooker Georgia Ponsonby and England hooker Amy Cokayne.
Yet another is the way New Zealand has responded to a team clearly performing at an extremely high standard and having fun while doing so.
New Zealand Rugby yesterday announced that more tickets had been released for the final. About 8000 were snapped up within minutes of the fulltime whistle of the Black Ferns’ latest win, causing the website to crash.
Hirini said: “I’ve had messages from other national teams’ players saying ‘thank you for what you guys are doing here in Aotearoa’ because it’s not just for us, it’s for the next generation of players, it’s for other women’s sports who are still wanting this. It’s changing women’s sport in New Zealand which is what we’ve been wanting for a long time.”
Canada, a team of amateur players, showed their potential in pushing England all the way in their semifinal, and Hirini said the next World Cup, to be hosted by England in 2025, will likely be even closer and therefore better.
“I think the more teams that can become professional – jeez, I don’t know what the next World Cup will look like if there’s another three or teams that are professional."
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