Straight Up

Product Information

This book tells how this very nearly didn’t happen, how she could have gone in a totally different direction but, like Tangaroa, something inside her guided her and led her out of a world of abuse, alcohol and drugs. Tui’s endearing interviews and authenticity have been welcomed by those who say rugby is bereft of characters and charisma.

The Black Ferns play Wales in the quarter-final of the rugby World Cup at the Northland Events Centre in Whangārei this Saturday, October 29, at 7:30pm. There was a more serious element to the interview when the hosts asked about the pressure the Black Ferns were under to win gold. Overall though really liked the sections on her growth in the game and LOVED the reflection at the end re. I eventually found an autobiography of Billie Jean King, a famous white American tennis player who did amazing things, but that was it.It’s a curious task, to help someone mine the details of their intimate memories and craft them so that others can get close. Before last year’s World Cup final, she filmed herself asking former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern if she could have her seat in office. I said hi, and she and Dad must have been talking because she did seem to know who I was, and she said hi, too. By the time I got pulled into that interview, I look up and all three tiers [of the stand] are chokka, I’d never seen it.

I got Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone one Christmas, and it was just the best to have my very own novel to read. This book is definitely more memoir with a sprinkle of self-help wisdom that ties up each chapter nicely.I didn’t even know we were live on TV, I was just giving her – and then she started asking me questions. For the record – and I say this with, ahem, no bias whatsoever – New Zealand has six gold medals in Tokyo so far, which is one gold for every 816,000 people.

She is an Olympic gold medalist, Rugby world champion, And now she is using the platform she has created to help inspire others. At 31, Tui is one of the biggest stars in world rugby, a member of the Black Ferns team who beat England to win the 15-a-side World Cup in front of 42,579 fans in Auckland last November. The silver sheen on the title and the black T-shirt, and the white name is a nod to the black jersey and the trifecta of hues that make up our national sporting identities, but it’s subtle compared to, say, books about Richie McCaw (dark covers, staunch expressions, often shots from the field). We hung out there in the basement and I’d just want to be with her all the time, whatever she was doing.

It’s a fact universally acknowledged (these days, thanks to the activism of the players themselves and their allies) that women have gotten a hell of a lot less than the men. I pulled out book after book, but there wasn’t a single biography on a Kiwi female athlete in the whole section. So she’s not ready to retire yet; she’s had great advice from the likes of mentor Keven Mealamu and the rugby players’ association. Over lunch, Tui will duck and weave certain questions – mainly about her rugby contract – but always with a laugh. Five months on from that glorious Rugby World Cup final at Eden Park – the gold medal, the singalong, an all-night party – she bounds into lunch in her black, short-sleeved adidas top, Black Ferns shorts and white cap as if she’s ready for another 80 minutes.