Portia Woodman-Wickliffe comes out of retirement to play at RWC 2025

Portia Woodman-Wickliffe wants to play at another Rugby World Cup.

She’s confirmed she’s coming out of international retirement to vie for Black Ferns selection and has signed a new contract with New Zealand Rugby. She’ll join the first wider squad camp next week.

It’s a massive boost for the Black Ferns World Cup title defence in England starting in August, and represents a major turnaround for the person widely regarded as the greatest female rugby player of all time.

Since winning a second Olympic gold medal with the Black Ferns Sevens and announcing her retirement from international rugby in August, Woodman-Wickliffe had maintained the stance that her time in the black jersey was over.

‘This Energy Never Stops’ – Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025

‘This Energy Never Stops’ – Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025

But, after a refreshing stint playing in Japan and a hugely successful three months with the Blues in Super Rugby Aupiki, in which they won the title and she was named player of the final, the two-time World Cup winner has had a change of heart. It also comes after a deal to switch codes and play for the Newcastle Knights in NRLW fell through (more on that shortly.)

Surprised by just how much she was enjoying the Blues, Woodman-Wickliffe says the thought that she could go after another World Cup started forming during the first couple of rounds of Aupiki and really took hold a few weeks later.

“At the start of the season, I was like, ‘no way, not even on my radar’ and it wasn’t something I wanted to do, but by game two I realised how much I was enjoying it and thought maybe I could play on,” she says. “All the time I was talking to Renee, who wanted me to do it, but on my own terms.”

Although encouraged by her wife, former international Renee Wicliffe, and her parents, she says this hasn’t been a hasty decision. With ongoing media speculation and having been asked about the possibility ad nauseum, Woodman-Wickliffe says it was mental skills coach Iain Saunders who helped take the emotion out of the decision and cut out some of the noise around it.

“I had people calling, and I was just like, look, I can’t give you an answer…it’s not a no, but it’s just not a definite yes yet. Just prior to going into the second game against Matatu (in round five), I said to Renee, I want to do it, I want to go for another World Cup. That was the moment.”

As has been widely reported, Woodman-Wickliffe was on the brink of taking up an offer to play for the Newcastle Knights in NRLW, only for the NRL to refuse to a register her contract due to her role as an ambassador for Mastercard with the Rugby World Cup.

While it’s been described as a “conflict of interest” situation, Woodman-Wickliffe’s agent Kelly Evans says it’s not as simple as that. Evans says the advice they received from the Rugby League Players Association was that there was no specific rule prohibiting a player from promoting a rival code. The NRL were concerned about the potential of setting a precedent, but Evans says they were happy to work through the various issues.

“When we were given that advice, we felt it was worth the conversation and to understand if there were specific components that were the issue and if these could be remedied.”

Evans says the process became incredibly drawn out as the NRL dragged the chain on responding to the Knights and the Rugby League Players Association when they continually sought clarification over the supposed “promotion of other codes” rule, while also rebutting all of the league’s concerns. She felt as if the NRL were looking for reasons to decline rather than seeing the benefits of having one of the greatest rugby players of all-time in their competition.

“While the RLPA lawyers had said there is no rule that is being invoked, they outlined that the NRL have the power to make the decision if they wanted to allow her to play. The NRL stated it wasn’t in the best interests of the game and Portia would be in breach of the women’s Code of Conduct which I find really interesting in itself, while the parties on our side saw this differently.

“We felt the benefits outweighed any perceived risk and noted 75% of all RWC tickets had already been sold, NRLW fans aren’t likely choosing between attending the Rugby World Cup in England and NRLW matches, and TV viewership wouldn’t be affected with games held in different time zones.” Evans says.

Evans reports they and Mastercard were willing to make concessions and forego the physical appearance at Rugby World Cup’s opening weekend. But the impasse came down to the NRL requiring a six-month pause across the NRLW season from May to October, on all name and image marketing promotions involving the tournament. That simply wasn’t viable given the long-standing relationship, and they had to walk away.

Woodman-Wickliffe says she was really excited about the prospect of taking on a new challenge and gutted the issues couldn’t be worked out. She wasn’t after special treatment but says this was a chance to show women in both codes and female athletes in general what opportunities there are.

“Why wouldn’t you encourage women to play sports or enable it to happen? Like, how? How can we limit it? And yes, I get there are contractual things but surely you can find ways to make things work?”

Lina Caccamo, GM Strategy and Innovation for the RLPA says they remain disappointed by the decision.

“We strongly believe Portia would have been an incredible asset to the NRLW this season,” she says. “Portia and her management worked hard to try to overcome the roadblocks, however the requirement for all name, image and promotional marketing to be paused for the full duration of the NRLW season was not possible.”

She adds: “The NRLW is of a part-time professional nature and there are limited income earning opportunities for female athletes outside playing contracts.”

Rugby league’s loss will again be Rugby union’s gain. Woodman-Wickliffe can understand people may think she’s only committing to the Black Ferns as a back-up option or that she may take the place of someone who’s been committed for longer. She hopes everyone knows that’s not the case and they can see value in having her available.

“I totally get that, but there’s no way I’d do this without being fully into it. I also see an opportunity and something totally new because I’m now playing at centre, so this is a whole new space that I’m stepping into.” She thinks she can add more off the field than perhaps she has in the past.

“Helping create an environment where we’re all connected. I want to be more than just a rugby player within this environment and that’s one of my things that I didn’t quite do as well within the sevens squad… I got so focused on my own thing, trying to lead by example, rather than pulling people with me.”

It may have taken a winding path to reach this decision, but Portia Woodman-Wickliffe is all-in with the Black Ferns and Rugby World Cup 2025.