Dr Farah Palmer is something of a sporting legend in New Zealand, and for a women's rugby player that demands quite a career.
In a country where rugby is king, and where success in the sport is paramount, her three Women’s Rugby World Cup winners medals – all as captain of the Black Ferns – mark her out as the rarest of personalities, which Total Rugby profiles this week on its television and radio programmes.
A netball player growing up in the small King Country village of Piopio, Palmer only took up rugby at university in Otago as a way of retaining a symbolic link with her family, from whom she was separated for the first time by the Cook Strait.
“Rugby was something I could relate to because it was what my father played and my mother used to go down and watch,” she told Total Rugby. “That’s why I played, and then I realised that it was a huge part of Otago culture - everybody either watched or supported the teams and I loved being part of that.”
Initially Palmer played prop forward for the University, but it was a shift to hooker on account of her size that brought her to the attention of the national coaches, who first drafted her into the squad as a replacement in 1995.
“I played as a reserve for New Zealand in the first year, then I played in my second year as the number one hooker and then I was made captain after that, in 1997.
“It was pretty freaky for me being asked to captain players like Anna Richards and Helen Littleworth, people I’d looked up to. My head said ‘no don’t do it, you are not ready’ and my heart said ‘yes, yes, yes’, so ‘yes’ was the answer that came out and really I didn’t know what I was doing.
“I was way out of my depth but learning lots and I had a lot of the senior players around me, who helped me out.”
Unparalleled World Cup success
Palmer led the Black Ferns to their first World Cup success in Amsterdam in 1998, but the heightened expectation at home and a loss against England in 2001 added to the tension on Spanish soil for the second edition of the tournament in 2002.
“Everybody had seen us play in the last World Cup so everyone was measuring themselves against the way we were doing things. It was a lot more intense and it was actually a relief when we won, a wonderful feeling again but more a relief than anything.”
By the time the most recent tournament was held in 2006 Palmer was, by her own admission, struggling for form and fitness and approaching retirement. However, she felt compelled to compete once more.
“Everyone likes to finish on a high and I approached the 2006 World Cup campaign slightly differently to the others because I knew it was my last. I enjoyed every moment, trying to soak it all in and appreciate everything we did,” she said of the event in Edmonton, Canada.
Leading light
Now a senior lecturer at Massey University, Palmer also performs research on the two topics which fire her passions the most: women's sport and Maori issues in sport. She is Director of the Maori Business Research Centre at the University as well as being on the Maori Rugby Board and the IRB’s Advisory group for the Women’s Game. All roles which have brought even greater insight and perspective, especially on attitudes to the Women's Game in her native New Zealand.
“When I started in the early 90’s it was seen as a bit of a giggle, whereas now schoolgirl rugby is considered a serious sport like netball in New Zealand. Attitudes have changed in those 20 years.
“Rugby is our national sport so I don’t think New Zealanders care whether it’s males or females that are representing them.
“I suppose there isn’t that history of the women’s jersey meaning as much as the All Black jersey but, by association, we immediately think we are like the men - we are wearing the black jersey so you do get a sense of that.”
Abridged from an interview with Dr Farah Palmer on Total Rugby. Watch the segment on the TV show from Wednesday 19 November, or listen to the radio show on stations around the world, on i-Tunes or on this website from Thursday 20 November.
