Setting expectations

For the 5.10pm release of our Rugby World Cup Squad

I just wanted to drop you a quick note ahead of the big new this Friday. 5.10pm is after I normally send these newsletters through to you all and to be honest, doesn’t leave me enough time to give you the dissection you deserve.

I can (and will!) jump on here directly after to give you a quick download of vibe. But to dig right into the detail, I will need to fire up the spreadsheets. I’ll want to know about the cycle shift, comparative experience with our last World Cup squad as well as a breakdown of geographic spread.

World Cup squad announcements will always throw up excitement and surprise. But they also offer a unique snapshot in time against which we can mark how we have travelled. So all this to say, the fuller analysis will be with you by the end of next week.

From left to right, me with producer, Bernadette Courtney and director, Lisa Burd.

But while I have you, I would also like to draw your attention to the Aotearoa grassroots women’s rugby doco, No Tears on the Field. I attended the Wellington screening as part of the Doc Edge festival last night and it was just fantastic. I had spoken to the producer and director, AGGGGGES ago. Back when they were putting the initial plan together. But I always want to see something for myself before sharing it with others.

I am weary of people walking in our space. I have seen even the best intentioned folk, make clumsy missteps. Trampling on the heart of the thing to default to cliche. Women’s rugby is very precious to me. It’s not just a sport, it’s my community.

I’m so pleased to tell you that this doco felt like us. A full display of the beautiful complexity of the women that choose to play such an unforgiving sport. There is a lot of hurt in the lives lived off paddock. So it stands to reason that there is comfort to be found in the release on it.

I remember this from my early rugby life. The mental clarity that could be gained from getting absolutely flattened. To be fully embodied and translate that experience of physical resilience into a mental one. I can take the knocks in life that I do now because I weathered tougher ones on the pitch. I know full well, what power I possess.

This doco gave you a glimpse of that fight. But also, it was funny. Because women’s rugby players always are. This story was set in the Taranaki club scene but I still managed to see at least three players I have coached. Such are the ties that bind us.

I think the best review I could give you though is this doco made me think of playing again. Something watching every minute of Farah Palmer Cup, Aupiki and the Black Ferns have not inspired in the last two years. But even more impressive, it also made me think again about coaching. After the pretty horrific off-field treatment I received last season, that’s not something I ever thought I would consider.

No Tears on the Field will air virtually from 28 July. So if you’re unable to get to the screening in Christchurch and Stratford, check it out online.

With you,
Alice