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'I thought that they were joking': Demant reflects on shock captaincy call-up and World Cup

Ruahei Demant fronts media after the 2021 Rugby World Cup final. Photo by Andy Jackson - World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images

Black Ferns captain Ruahei Demant has reflected on her incredible 2022, chronicling her journey through receiving the captaincy role and leading the revamped women in black to the 2021 Rugby World Cup Title.

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Having started the year without even having a leadership role within the team, Demant admits she was not just taken back by the appointment of captaincy, but she thought Wayne Smith and co were joking when they revealed their decision.

The fly-half told SENZ the tale of surprise and what it took for her to make the role her own.

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“I remember when they told me that I was captain and we were all sitting in the room,” Demant recalled. “We were talking about selection, (that was) what the meeting was about and it was selection regarding our first tour which was our Pac Four tour that was in June.

“They started talking about leadership and I thought, ‘Oh, you know, maybe I’m going to be in the leadership group, (that’s) why they’re talking about this,’ and then yeah, they said we want you to be the captain and I was really taken aback.

“I didn’t expect it at all. I thought that they were joking, to be honest.

“I never, ever thought that I could captain a team like the Black Ferns, and then to have the honour to ring Kennedy and ask her if she wanted to co-captain the team, and then to go and lead the team alongside her throughout our home World Cup was such a crazy ride and I really couldn’t have done it without her.”

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Demant’s trophy cabinet will be looking significantly fuller at the end of 2022 compared to just a few months prior, having picked up the World Cup trophy, player of the match for the World Cup Final, World Rugby Women’s 15’s Player of the Year, Black Ferns Player of the Year, the Tom French Memorial M?ori Player of the Year and the Kelvin R Tremain Memorial New Zealand Player of the Year.

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Advice and support from former captains in Les Elder and Fiao’o Fa’amausili set Demant up for success, as she was told “you’ve been named captain for a reason, you may think that you have to do something else but you don’t need to change anything, just be yourself.”

Demant said she held onto that advice, knowing that her team responded more to actions rather than words and so her goals were to lead by example in her fitness and on-field effort.

The addition of long-time Black Ferns Sevens coach Allan Bunting to Wayne Smith’s coaching staff in the role of Manager of Culture and Leadership also had a strong impact on Demant’s attitude towards captaincy, as Bunting helped lead the shift towards the Black Ferns environment being a people-first culture.

Bunting’s relationship with the Sevens players within the team was another example of the power of respect in leadership, with Demant remarking on how the conversations between Bunting and the likes of Portia Woodman, Ruby Tui and Sarah Hirini were all two-way streets, citing Bunting’s modesty and respect for the players as a foundation for productive conversation, even if there were disagreements.

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The team’s attitude towards accountability made life easier for the captain, but coach Wayne Smith’s game plan compensated for that as the relentless attacking intent made leading from the front lung-busting work.

“A lot of people thought that we were playing (with) flare and we called it back-yard footy, but it was just hard work camouflaged as that and you had to be really really fit to play his style of game.”

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Flankly 48 minutes ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
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Nickers 57 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

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