A CLIPPING from the Taumarunui Gazette show how women's game caught the imagination in the King Country 45 years ago
THE popularity of women’s rugby has been growing exponentially following the Black Ferns’ stunning victory in the 2022 Women’s Rugby World Cup.
Last year Sport NZ research showed that 40% of sport followers watch men’s rugby, while the next most popular sport was women’s rugby at 29%.
Many New Zealanders feel that they have an exciting new sports code on their hands, but is it all that new?
Taumarunui sportswriter and historian Ron Cooke said his town briefly had its own women’s rugby teams, firstly in the mid to late 1960s when Athletic Rugby Club fielded a team.
“I saw the photo decades ago but have been unable to find a copy. Perhaps a reader can help out?
“But interest in the women’s game had come back with a vengeance by 1977, when four Taumarunui women’s teams were established – Manunui, Piriaka, Railway and Te Pomanga-Tawhiti,” Ron said.
“These trained diligently each week and played in their own competition on Sunday afternoons, though it was called ‘ladies rugby’ in those days.”
Opposition from Taumarunui High School phys-ed head teacher J Morrison may have been detrimental to the teams getting new players. This teacher was quoted in the Taumarunui Gazette saying, “ladies rugby” would never happen while he was at the school.
“It don’t think women are built for it. It can’t do them any harm just throwing a ball around in fun but when it comes to tackling, I can’t see that it could possibly do them any good,” Morrison told the Taumarunui Gazette.
Ron said for whatever reason, interest in the women’s sport at Taumarunui again waned probably helped along by key players moving onto other parts of the country.
“Perhaps they were all shook-up after the death of Elvis Presley?” (16 August 1977).
The King Country’s involvement with the women’s game in the late 1970s seems to contradict Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, which states that involvement in women’s rugby did not become significant in New Zealand until the 1980s.
“I don’t know why they left us out,” Ron said.
“To me, for women in a small town like Taumarunui to establish their own rugby competition in 1977, supported by four teams and well before the code became popular elsewhere, was a significant milestone for local history and for the history of rugby in New Zealand.”
The Manunui team was initially organised by the club’s entertainment committee, chaired by Mrs N Hamilton, to play a social game against an Auckland team with a hangi and raffles to follow.
One social game never eventuated but instead Mrs Hamilton was helped by several other women’s rugby team organisers and the incentive to get a permanent team established grew with the girls.
Fifteen players turned out to be easy to find, with many more standing by as reserves.
The age spread in the team looked to be from 14 to 40 years. Jack Te Wano offered his services as coach and Wednesday night practices were as well supported as any of the men’s ones.
Meanwhile, in 1977 the Taumarunui Railway Rugby Club was a revival of one which had existed two years previously.
Their reason for starting was to challenge other women’s team in the district to play for a shield donated by Peter Sharplin ahead of any women’s teams being formed.
This team was slow to get going as some of the would-be players were tied up in other sports.
Mrs Harwood’s husband offered to coach the team and trainings were arranged for Sunday and Monday nights.
The Piriaka women’s rugby team began as a social activity, with, “if the men can do it why can’t we,” being the attitude taken. However, as their skills and interest grew, Sunday afternoon rugby took on ever-increasing importance in the eyes of the enthusiastic players.
The Te Pomanga-Tawhiti team was begun by a group of active netball players who wanted a sport to carry on with as their season drew to a close. It was the challenge of something new that attracted the women, the organiser of the team, Mrs Pat Pomanga-Tawhiti said.
But apparently this soon turned into enjoying rugby for its own sake.
