Former Black Ferns veteran Portia Woodman-Wickliffe will be coming out of international retirement as she wants to play in this year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup.
She confirmed this by signing a new contract with New Zealand Rugby, and she’ll join the first wider squad camp next week.
This will be a massive boost for the Black Ferns World Cup title defence campaign in England.
After winning two Olympic gold medals with the Black Ferns 7s and announcing her retirement from international rugby in August, Woodman-Wickliffe maintained the stance that her time in the black jersey was over.
Woodman-Wickliffe was even surprised about how she had a change of heart this season while playing for the Blues in the Super Rugby Aupiki.
She says at the start of the season, it was not even on her radar to return to the international scene and it wasn’t something she wanted to do, but by game two she realised how much she was enjoying it and thought maybe she could play on.
Although encouraged by her wife, former international Renee Wickliffe, and her parents, she says this hasn’t been a hasty decision.
With ongoing media speculation and having been asked about the possibility, Woodman-Wickliffe says it was mental skills coach Iain Saunders who helped take the emotion out of the decision and cut out some of the noise around it.
Woodman-Wickliffe says she was really excited about the prospect of taking on a new challenge.
She says she was not after special treatment but says this was a chance to show women in both codes and female athletes in general what opportunities there are.
The Women’s Rugby World Cup will be held from the 22nd of August to the 27th of September, 2025.
[Source: Rugbypass.com]
