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'I still have people coming up to me': Black Fern Renee Holmes on her World Cup final

HAMILTON, NEW ZEALAND - MARCH 25: Renee Holmes of Matatu (C) celebrates during the Super Rugby Aupiki Final match between Matatu and Chiefs Manawa at FMG Stadium, on March 25, 2023, in Hamilton, New Zealand. (Photo by Fiona Goodall/Getty Images)

Dashing, clinical, and reflective, Renee Holmes is a completely different beast than she was in October last year.

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The Black Ferns fullback is now a World Champion and in March scored a record 23 points for Matatu in the Super Rugby Aupiki final against Chiefs Manawa ending the Northerners unbeaten run in the competition.

Few gave Matatu a chance of toppling the defending Aupiki champions in Hamilton, a hypothesis enhanced when the visitors slipped to a 19-0 deficit in as many minutes.

“Within the group, we’d been building belief all season and adamant we were the team that was going to beat Manawa,” Holmes told RugbyPass.

“We only lost to them by eight in the round-robin, scoring the last three tries. Going behind 19-0 obviously wasn’t the ideal start but we hadn’t touched the ball.

“The first time we got the ball we scored a try and reset. Here we go. When we scored again that was crucial. We talked about building scoreboard pressure. Kicking wise, I was going to take anything 40 metres out.”

This attitude was a stark contrast to the round-robin.

Matatu was beaten 24-25 by Hurricanes Poua in Christchurch with Holmes criticised for not taking a handy penalty close to full-time which would have won the hosts the game.

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“I felt I wasn’t the right person to take it. Physically, I was exhausted. I’d scored two tries and made 19 carries in that game so I felt my legs wouldn’t have the energy to get the distance,” Holmes admitted.

“I went to our two backup kickers and they weren’t comfortable either, so we went for a lineout. Imagine if we had scored.

“When we didn’t it sucked, and it took me a couple of days to get over it. I felt I’d let the team down. I won’t make that mistake twice.”

Back to the Aupiki final and Holmes nailed three penalties as Matatu stayed ahead of Manawa 33-31, a lead that could have been lost on the last play of the season.

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A penalty was conceded by Matatu gifting Tenika Willison a penalty shot 15 meters out to win the title.

“I thought she’d get it. No way she’d miss. We’d run the show for 60 minutes so when the penalty happened, I felt sick. I felt like throwing up on the field.

“I couldn’t believe it when Tenika missed. I went to the left side, furthest from where Tenika placed it. When I saw it coming towards me the relief was enormous.

“My advice for Tenika is that we need to miss the winning kick to get the winning kick. Kickers are a rare breed.

“We’re courageous but we need those bad moments to build diamonds.”

Holmes was far from a diamond in the Black Ferns opening match of the World Cup against Australia at Eden Park on October 8 last year.

The starting fullback was twice skinned by Wallaroos winger Bienne Terita as the hosts slumped to a shock 0-17 disadvantage. Eventually, the Black Ferns won the match, but Holmes admits she had a rough night.

“Never in my whole life had I missed three tackles in a game, let alone three tackles in 20 minutes.

“I think the actual reality of starting a World Cup match got to me. I’ve never been one to really feel pressure, it’s the way I was brought up, but I let the occasion get to me when I needed to have more fun and express myself.

“Smithy (coach Wayne Smith) named the teams for the pool games before the tournament. I didn’t play against Wales which might have looked like I was dropped, but I wasn’t.

“Smithy was honest in his feedback after Australia and so I trained hard before Scotland which went really well.”

Holmes scored 22 points, including two tries, in the 57-0 drubbing of Scotland. By the semi-final against France, she’d caught fire. A try she set up for Ruby Tui early in the second half of a 25-24 victory was one of the defining moments of the tournament.

“I established a cool connection with Ruby and that try was textbook training. It was about having the courage to pull the trigger and being in sync with each other. I saw the fullback in the line, I’d been reading cues, I put the kick in, and Ruby is so fast. That try was huge.”

An even bigger try was the Sky Sport Fan’s Try of the Year scored by Stacey Fluhler in the World Cup final against England. Down at half-time, the length of the field effort was the first strike of the second half in the Black Ferns 34-31 triumph.

Holmes delivered the last pass to Fluhler, a moment Wayne Smith identified as his favourite moment of the decider.

Earlier Holmes thought she’d scored a length of the field try of her own.

“That intercept was the coolest, craziest no-try ever. Looking back, I still get goosebumps. The whole stadium saw it. I still have people coming up to me saying it should have been a try.

“I stretched every limb in my body to get it. When I turned around, celebrating all our players were in our in-goal area. I felt like an idiot.

“That intercept was about showing courage though. If I didn’t go for it, Ellie Kildunne would have scored for England.”

Holmes admits winning the World Cup has “changed her life.” She is more easily recognised and the expectation to perform to an even greater level is higher.

She is presently playing club rugby for High School Old Boys in Christchurch and will relink with Waikato for the Farah Palmer Cup which starts in July.

On June 29 the Black Ferns play their first Test since the World Cup final against Australia in Brisbane.

New coach Alan Bunting recently named former All Black Mike Delany and the relatively unknown Tony Christie as his assistants. Holmes had worked closely with Christie at Matatu.

“I was so happy for TC. I clicked with him right away. He has a huge passion for the game and if didn’t have an answer to a question he’d go away and find it. He does his homework and has a heart of gold.”

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fl 47 minutes ago
Ex-Wallaby laughs off claims Bath are amongst the best in the world

“Yes I wrote that, because you had Leinster as the best team in the world. What was that based on - winning the URC this season?”

It was based on Leinster’s performances over the course of this season, and on their trophy. If Bordeaux beat Toulouse then I’ll change my mind and move them to first. But as it is I expect Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Leinster to all finish with one trophy each, and with Leinster having produced the best week-on-week performances of the three.


“One of those teams won the league in each of those years so yes they were worse. If I was a fan of either of those four teams I would rather have been a fan of a team that won a trophy than didn’t.”

That’s true - I would too. With regard to Stormers I think their trophy was very much enabled by the fact that they weren’t playing in europe, so were able to rest their players much more than the non-SA teams were so I’m not sure whether I would or wouldn’t consider them to have had a better season than Leinster in 2022, but clearly Munster and Glasgow (respectively) had better seasons than Leinster in 2023 and 2024. But if I was a fan of one of those 3 teams I would rather be a fan of a team that won 66 URC+CC matches over the course of 3 seasons (Leinster) than a team that won 46 (Munster) or 42 (Glasgow). If you think trophies are literally the only thing that matters, do you think Blackburn Rovers are a more successful Premier League team than Tottenham Hotspur are?


“You contradict yourself alot. Trophies matter in one post and in the same post coming second consistently makes you better.”

Its going to get really frustrating if you’re not willing to read what I write. I said: “Trophies matter. They matter a lot. But so does winning games. So does making finals.” How does that contradict my assessment that Leinster were better than Stormers?


“I doubt Leinster would say they have been the better team in any of the seasons you keep going on about.”

Teams generally downplay talk of them being the best, so that wouldn’t surprise me. But crucially I don’t think Leinster were the best team in 2022, or in 2023, or in 2024, so I’m not sure what you think you’re responding to.


“Lets make it clear though - you are the one who went on and on about previous seasons with your deep dive into la Rochelle and Stormers etc.”

Yeah - I did that because you brought up Leinster’s trophyless record from 2022-2024, so I thought that was worth responding to. If you’d like though I can stop responding to the things you say?

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