It was the night of the All Blacks’ third and final test against France in Hamilton, and the driver turned to his passengers and asked: "What’s the All Blacks score? Oh, wait, this will be a challenge for all you females".
Why exactly would that be a challenge?
The English women’s football team faced a barrage of backlash, from racism to sexism, during their Euros defence last month.
Former Premier League footballer Joey Barton congratulated the Lionesses on winning "the nonsense pottery trophy", called their 3-1 win on penalties "borderline embarrassing" and told them to never ask for equal pay again.
Apparently, being the first senior English football team to win a major trophy overseas — has it been "coming home" for the men, Joey? — and the first to defend a title does not matter.
Have people forgotten women can do anything?
We are world champions. Our Black Ferns are six-time Rugby World Cup champions and leave next week before their title defence later this month. Otago’s Courtney Duncan is a four-time world motocross champion. Lisa Carrington is the kayaking GOAT. And there is no slowing down cyclist Ellesse Andrews.
We dominate the world stage. Women played a part in 15 of New Zealand’s 20 medals at the Paris Olympics, including seven golds.
We change the game. About 16.2 million English fans tuned in to watch their Lionesses win the Euros — why did no Kiwi broadcaster pick up the rights to the tournament, by the way? — and Chloe Kelly’s game-winning, 110kmh penalty was more powerful than any men’s Premier League goal last season.
Do not forget Lucy Bronze, who played the entire tournament with a fractured tibia.
We compete while pregnant and return in the blink of an eye. Netballers Ameliaranne Ekenasio and Monica Falkner returned mere months after giving birth.
We can dominate headlines. Before the Super Netball final between the West Coast Fever and the Melbourne Vixens last weekend, The West Australian newspaper ran a nearly blank back page with the headline "Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard". That’s it. That’s the headline. An ode to the Fever’s world-class shooter.
We own sports teams. The Northern Kāhu are the first all-female-owned, and coached, franchise in the country, and Carrington recently jumped on board with the ownership group.
We have competitions named after us, including the Farah Palmer Cup — getting under way this weekend — the Kate Sheppard Cup and Billie Jean King Cup.
We break new ground. Farah Palmer was the first woman appointed to the New Zealand Rugby board, Lydia Ko was the youngest person to be inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame and Ilona Maher is the most followed rugby player, man or woman, on social media.
We use our feet to show our support. A record 386,455 people attended Super Netball games this season, cementing the league as Australia’s most attended women’s sport, and the NCAA Nebraska v Omaha 2023 volleyball game is still believed to have had one of the highest crowds for women’s sport with 92,300 in attendance.
We are the umpires and support staff, the physios, medics, managers, the ones running the club rooms and doing everything else behind the scenes to keep sport ticking.
We make crucial and game-changing decisions around the table as chief executives and board members from the grassroots, to national and international arenas.
We are in the fight for the long haul, for the betterment of sporting codes and the future of women’s sport.
So tell me again why it might be a challenge for us to know a simple score?
