Football Ferns’ rallying cry from rugby star Ruby Tui
Ben McKay |
New Zealand sporting legend Ruby Tui has issued a rallying cry to Kiwis to back the Football Ferns and give them the same experience as the country’s Rugby World Cup-winning women’s side.
Tui is the face of women’s rugby in New Zealand and in an act of sporting sisterhood has urged Kiwis to embrace the round-ball game over the next month.
“This is a unique opportunity for Aotearoa to get behind such a huge event,” she told AAP.
“It’s something (the Ferns) are never going to forget for their whole career. I remember vividly, we were buzzing out.”
The upcoming football World Cup, co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, has been met with indifference by many Kiwis.
Local coverage has focused on slow ticket sales, despite the tournament out-selling the most-recent edition – in France in 2019 – to become the biggest women’s sporting event of all time.
On Thursday night, a sold-out crowd will roar for the Football Ferns at Auckland’s Eden Park, New Zealand’s national stadium.
It will be the biggest crowd for a football match – male or female – in New Zealand’s history.
The Ferns will be treated to the same surge of excitement Tui experienced during her Rugby World Cup-winning run last year.
“It was just a sea of black for our whole team. The Football Ferns, hopefully they will be able to experience that,” she said.
After the Black Ferns beat England in last November’s World Cup final, Tui cemented her icon status by grabbing the microphone at the trophy presentation in front of 42,579 fans and singing New Zealand’s unofficial national anthem, the Maori waiata (song) Tutira Mai Nga Iwi, which translates as ‘people come together’.
“Everybody remembers the song but I just remember everybody wearing black,” she said.
“It just means so much when you sing your anthem, when you say Maori words in front of a Kiwi crowd. It just hits different.
“Not everybody in the world ever gets to experience something like that. I’m so excited for them. It’s going to be so special.”
Tui, speaking from California where she is enjoying a sabbatical, said she could not forget the occasion if she tried.
“I walk down the street (in New Zealand) and people just yell at me, ‘Tutira mai’. I won’t be forgetting it any time soon. My name is now tutira mai,” she said.
The much-loved 31-year-old said she was impressed by the strides taken by female footballers, not least world champions USA who kick off their tournament when they face Vietnam at Eden Park on Saturday.
“We get to host along with Australia, some of the greatest athletes in the female sports world,” she said.
“As a female sports person, the moves that have been made in the football world – some of them we dream of making.
“Their World Cup will have an audience of over two billion people. It’s just going to be such a great occasion.”
AAP
