Kendra Cocksedge’s award was right call
There is a small, and indeed smallminded, lobby of rugby followers who think the game’s newfound desire to embrace women is merely a fad being pursued to conform with the social expectations of the age.
This isn’t a group with open membership but it’s easy enough to know who’s a card-carrier because they will always find a way to reveal their allegiance to the concept of rugby being just for men.
They will always manage to establish that they believe gender inclusion is being forced upon rugby executives by forces they must obey for fear of being struck off by sponsors and other revenue sources.
Thursday will, therefore, be a frantic and exhausting day for this group who like to think of themselves as guardians of the game’s traditions and therefore empowered to defend the sport from the invading forces of inclusion and diversity.
If the subject of Kendra Cocksedge winning the Kelvin Tremain Trophy comes up, they will have to smirk, shake their head with a perplexed expression to provide the first signal they don’t respect or value that decision.
Then will come the well-rehearsed putdown which will begin with the lie that they have great respect for the women’s game . . . but, it doesn’t seem right to compare the achievements of someone playing five tests a year against moderate opposition with everything the All Blacks have to deal with.
Give the defenders of this misguided faith the opportunity and they will mount an argument that Cocksedge’s historic victory was merely tokenism — a gimmick to be seen to be doing the right thing.
It would be a terrible shame for anyone who doesn’t feel this way to be converted by any of this nonsense or persuaded against thinking that Cocksedge has been deemed to be the best player in the country for any other reason than in 2018 she was the best player in the country.
There is categorically nothing token about her award and anyone who saw her play for the Black Ferns against the Wallaroos would know that.
She was quite stunningly good in both those tests and, while Beauden Barrett produced a never to be forgotten performance at Eden Park, an hour earlier on the same ground Cocksedge had set the standard for all play-makers in New Zealand in how to strategically manage a game.
There may not be a smarter rugby brain in the country right now and you can only imagine that if Cocksedge had been in the All Blacks side that played the Springboks in Wellington, there is no way on earth they would have spurned the chance to drop the winning goal.
The judges have recognised not only her playing talent, but her strength of personality and ability to lead and rightly concluded that she is the most deserving recipient of the ultimate individual award, ahead of what wasn’t actually a stellar short-list of male candidates.
Her award is, however, not just proof she was the best player in the country in 2018, but also that despite the secret resistance and quiet mockers and sceptics, there is a genuine revolution taking place in rugby in this country.
The origins of that revolution were the ugly and worrying Chiefs end-of-season party in 2016.
That business with the stripper at theirteam function was so bad it has forced executives, administrators, players, coaches, parents, broadcasters, sponsors and anyone connected to rugby to rise above any ingrained prejudices and behaviours and strive for a more inclusive, diverse and accepting landscape.
The quiet resisters will continue to say it won’t last and that the embrace of women’s rugby will loosen as the issue of gender inclusion inevitably loses its grip of the media agenda, but thankfully they are not just odious, they are wrong.
Cocksedge can now take her place in history and be certain that she has been recognised for all the right reasons — that in 2018 she was the best player in the country. Period.
Rugby
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has given the clearest indication yet of who he thinks should replace him after next year’s World Cup . . . and it’s not Ireland’s Joe Schmidt.
Hansen announced that he would be stepping down after six years in the role at a press conference in Auckland yesterday.
Schmidt, who led the Irish to victory over the All Blacks in Dublin last month, announced soon after that game that he, too, would “finish coaching” after the Japan tournament in 2019.
He hinted this week, however, that he could be open to a future coaching role with the All Blacks.
Schmidt is considered one of the favourites to replace Hansen, but New Zealand Rugby bosses are believed to back Hansen’s current assistant, Ian Foster, to succeed him.
“I think he would be a great head coach,” Hansen said of Foster.
“He’s developed as a coach, as a man. He’s got some great qualities and his understanding of the game is great. [But] I don’t think it’s right that I sit here and say that guy should do the job or that guy. That’s the Rugby Union’s job.
“I’ve got my opinions and, for one of the very few times in my life, I’ll probably keep that opinion to myself.”
Asked whether it was important to have international experience to be an All Blacks head coach, Hansen said: “If you get the right person, it doesn’t matter what they’ve done.
“I hear you guys [the media] go on about that a fair bit, the best coach in the world at the moment — Joe Schmidt, named coach of the year — he lost his job at the Blues, yet he’s developed and grown and become a very good coach, and that’s not to say he wasn’t one then either, it just didn’t work.”
Criticism of Foster’s track record is unfair, Hansen said.
“I hear things about Fossie — ‘he didn’t win anything at the Chiefs’ — well, that’s because the Crusaders were winning everything at the time. Those things are irrelevant.
“I go back to my own career. I had both records — I lost the most tests in a row [for Wales], and I’ve won the most tests in a row [for All Blacks].
“One day, I’m a poor coach, the next day, I’m a good one. Things change and evolve.” — NZ Herald