Sevens try-scoring legend Portia Woodman is thankful for the impression her partner, fellow Black Ferns star Renee Wickliffe, has made on her life. Especially during her comeback from injury to play at the Tokyo Olympics.
“I’ve loved her from when I first met her – it wasn’t the same sort of love that I have for her now. The love I have for her is unreal.”
Days out from her second Olympics, rugby sevens superstar Portia Woodman reflects on the significant influence her fiancée, Renee Wickliffe, has had on her pursuit for greatness.
“She keeps me grounded. She understands my life, and I’m heading to Tokyo in the best shape of my life,” the Olympic silver medallist says.
“I’ve learnt a lot from her – as an athlete, as a mum and as a person.”
As Woodman has travelled a long and frustrating route back from injury on top of injury over the past 2½ years, Wickliffe has been right beside her.
A two-time World Cup champion in her own right, Wickliffe too has been going through her own painful return from injury.
But that’s part of what Woodman says has helped her get to Tokyo. Wickliffe understands just what she’s gone through and been sympathetic to what she’s needed to get back on track. They’ve helped each other through some “dark places”.
“It’s huge,” Woodman, who turned 30 this week, says. “Anytime I’m straying from my path to be the best athlete I can be, she pulls me in and helps point me back in the right direction.”
They’ve trained together, especially through the disruptions of 2020. During Level 4 lockdown, they had ‘whānau work-outs’ in the driveway of their Mt Maunganui home (with a household bubble of nine including Woodman’s parents), and practised their side-steps in the empty street.
And Woodman is grateful that Wickliffe has taught her there’s more to life than professional sport, as she gets to play an important role in Wickliffe’s eight-year-old daughter Kaia’s life.
Woodman and Wickliffe first met when Kaia was just eight weeks old, both invited to a national women’s sevens camp back in 2012.
The fleet-footed winger Wickliffe came to sevens from a rugby 15s and touch rugby background, representing New Zealand in all three, and already had a World Cup in 15s under her belt
Woodman had recently converted from netball, as a contracted Northern Mystics player, and was starting on her rugby journey – which would lead her to become the World Rugby’s sevens player of the decade.
