{"id":170653,"date":"2025-09-26T15:37:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T15:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/170653\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T15:37:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T15:37:11","slug":"woodman-wickliffe-on-world-cup-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/170653\/","title":{"rendered":"Woodman-Wickliffe on World Cup return"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Black Ferns winger Portia Woodman-Wickliffe<\/a> has \u201cno regrets at all\u201d about coming out of Test retirement to play at the 2025 Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup, although the future remains uncertain for the New Zealand<\/a> Rugby icon.<\/p>\n

Woodman-Wickliffe will start on the wing for New Zealand in their upcoming Rugby World Cup<\/a> Bronze Final against France<\/a> at Twickenham\u2019s Allianz Stadium, five months after the record-breaking Black Fern returned to the international fold.<\/p>\n

Rikki Swannell wrote a piece for RugbyPass 158 days before the third-place playoff, revealing Woodman-Wickliffe wanted to play at the showpiece event in England, following a sensational season with the Blues in Super Rugby Aupiki.<\/p>\n

\"Video<\/p>\n

Black Ferns captain Kennedy Tukuafu after defeat to Canada <\/p>\n

\"VideoBlack Ferns captain Kennedy Tukuafu after defeat to Canada <\/p>\n

Already a two-time World Cup winner after the 2017 and 2021 events, Woodman-Wickliffe was named in the Black Ferns squad on July 25. In the team\u2019s second match, the winger made history, becoming the first New Zealander \u2013 male or female \u2013 to score 50 Test tries.<\/p>\n

Woodman-Wickliffe has only played 33 Tests.<\/p>\n

Ahead of Saturday\u2019s Bronze Final, which will mark the end of this World Cup cycle for the Black Ferns, Woodman-Wickliffe was asked about her future. Without giving anything away, the woman many consider to be the \u2018GOAT\u2019 is just enjoying the occasion for what it is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve already had a final match and we\u2019re back here again,\u201d Woodman-Wickliffe told reporters at Allianz Stadium on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately I\u2019m taking it as an opportunity to play in the black jersey. No one really knows whether it\u2019s your last match, whether you get selected, injury, and all that comes with it. I\u2019m taking it as another opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cNext year, who knows where that goes. Ultimately, I really want to have babies at some stage and that plan is kind of on the go as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always your last match, you always play the black jersey as your last match and I\u2019m really grateful for this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Zealand\u2019s reign as Rugby World Cup champions came to an end last week in Bristol, with Canada<\/a> running away with a 34-19 win. Liana Mikaele-Tu\u2019u and Braxton Sorensen-McGee scored the Black Ferns\u2019 second-half tries as they mounted a valiant comeback.<\/p>\n

While it wasn\u2019t their day at Ashton Gate, the Black Ferns are intent on ending their World Cup campaign on a winning note against Les Bleues. France fell short of an upset win against tournament hosts England<\/a> in the semi-finals, losing 35-17.<\/p>\n

World Rugby 15s Women\u2019s Player of the Year nominee Jorja Miller<\/a> returns to the starting side after missing the semi-final defeat. Miller has also been nominated for 15s Breakthrough Player of the Year, with teammate Sorensen-McGee also up for that award.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think of the Black Ferns and the legacy that we\u2019ve had, it\u2019s all about holding it close to our hearts but it\u2019s never ours to hold onto forever. It\u2019s just ours to be a caretaker. We always try to give back to the jersey and leave it in a better place,\u201d Woodman-Wickliffe explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying for third and fourth to show the world what we can do despite not playing the game that we want to be playing, we will hold our heads high with absolute pride in our abilities and ourselves personally.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Black Ferns winger Portia Woodman-Wickliffe has \u201cno regrets at all\u201d about coming out of Test retirement to play…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-170653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}