A new Black Fern has a persistent Irishwoman and clubmates known as the Shark Wahs to thank for a career going from strength to strength, writes Adam Julian
It took time away from rugby for Iritana Hohaia to appreciate the true place of rugby in her life.
Something of a prodigy, Hohaia was selected for the Black Ferns 2021 Northern Tour after playing just 10 games for Taranaki and missing the entire Farah Palmer Cup that season. She didn't feature in any of the four test drubbings in England and France.
In 2022 Hohaia was hampered by a kidney injury and entertained thoughts of quitting until she joined the national police college.
"I needed to find my purpose, something other than rugby, which had dominated my life," Hohaia says.
"Joining the police was about challenging myself. There are so many pathways you can go down. I’m passionate about helping people and the police do that. I love the physical side of it and interacting with people. It’s a whole different persona you've got to be. You’re not there for yourself or family, you're there for the community.
"The Black Ferns are kind-of similar. It’s a team environment where you're exposed to high-pressure moments. You’ve got to be understanding, organised and honest about yourself and to your teammates.”
(There is a long history of policewomen in the Black Ferns from pioneering winger Helen Mahon-Stroud, scorer of the first World Cup try in 1991, and World Rugby Hall of Fame inductee Fiao'o Fa'amausili , ONZM.)
The 23 year-old Hohaia (Black Fern 248) appears set to become another successful policewoman international, based on her Test debut against Australia on June 29 in Brisbane.
The Black Ferns thrashed the Wallaroos 50-0, holding the hosts scoreless for the first time since 1997. Hohaia was lively in her half hour off the bench and even scored a try.
“I was running my usual halfback lines, my positive lines, when I saw Amy du Plessis make a break. I was screaming on her inside for the pop and to her credit she gave it away and I was able to score,” Hohaia says.
“I play more of a running game. I like to attack by the rucks or take defenders wider and play near the edge. I’ve played a lot at fullback I’m used to space. My running game is a point of difference.”
That running game was evident in yesterday’s 52-21 victory over Canada in Ottawa. The Black Ferns were in a serious fight when only ahead 28-21 after 52 minutes but outstanding contributions from the bench ensured New Zealand finished with a wet sail.
Hohaia’s personal highlights included a 30m break when New Zealand was stuck deep inside their territory and delivering clinical passes that helped create tries for Mastercard Women of the Match Amy du Plessis and Kelsey Teneti.
The Black Ferns' victory, in front of a record Canadian crowd of 10,090, was officially their 100th in a Test. They reached that milestone in 117 Tests which is two quicker than England who reached the landmark in 2006.
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Ōpunake is a small town on the southwest coast of Taranaki. It is located 45km southwest of New Plymouth. A statue of Peter Snell acknowledges the birthplace of New Zealand's Sports Champion of the Century. Former All Blacks captain Graham Mourie is another from Ōpunake while Kendra Cocksedge grew up half an hour down the road in Ōkato.
The youngest of five children, including three brothers, Iritana Hohaia's own Ōpunake sports legend was her father and dairy farmer, Russell ‘Chook’ Hohaia. She grew up playing rugby with the boys from the primary school. No venue was too far for practice or games.
Oralaith Curran was Women's Rugby Advisor for the Taranaki Rugby Union from 2017 to 2018. Hohaia credits the Irishwoman with creating greater opportunities for girls to play rugby at high school.
“We had six teams in the local competition when I was at college. We were playing every weekend and there was sevens too, so it was pretty good. Oralaith was amazing with her organisation and support. Numbers have dropped a little but there are plans in place to rebuild.”
In 2018 Hohaia was a member of the New Zealand Sevens team at the Junior Olympics that won a gold medal in Buenos Aires. In the final against France, she scored a try. The New Zealand team was coached by ex-military fitness instructor Jimmy Sinclair who’ll look to extend Canterbury’s dominance of the Farah Palmer Cup as the newly appointed coach.
Better was to come for Hohaia in 2019. She was named Taranaki Whio Player of the Year, but things weren’t easy off the field. Tragically and unexpectedly, her dad Russell died in February of that year.
Her coach at the Southern Club, Devon Berry says it was a difficult time for Hohaia.
Himself a former outside back for the Hawera-based club, he had decided to volunteer his services at the rugby club and, by accident rather than design, he was stuck with coaching the premier women.
“A mate was supposed to do it, but he couldn’t attend the first training, so I filled in. Then he couldn’t do the game, so I did that too, and the rest is history,” Berry laughed.
“When I first started [the women's coaching] at Southern, we had nine players. Despite Covid in 2020, we had 23 players. Gayle Broughton joined in 2020 which was massive as she’s a superstar, but probably our biggest stalwart is Sharee Brown.
"She’s a lock, our captain, and the most capped player. She’s a policewoman in Hawera and Iritana’s partner. That’s how we got Iritana,” Berry said.
Hohaia "was quite emotional because of her dad in those first couple of years. That was hard because I didn’t know anything about coaching women except they actually listen and that’s when I decided we needed to change the culture. I separated the players into small groups and asked them what they wanted.”
From this meeting, the concept of the ‘Sharkie Wahs’ was born. It is about an ideal Southern wahine - positive, supportive, with a good work ethic and mana.
These values aligned with Hohaia’s outlook.
She says now: “Southern is a player welfare, whanau-oriented club. They really celebrate their women and acknowledge their achievements. That creates a will to give back, which is awesome."
In 2020 Southern won the senior championship and Hohaia went on to score two tries for Taranaki in their 32-29 FPC win over North Harbour later that year. It was Taranaki’s first win in 21 matches.
Southern added another Taranaki title in 2021 and this year Hohaia scored a try in their 15-12 victory over perennial contenders Clifton in the final.
And she has now played two seasons of Super Rugby Aupiki for the Hurricanes.
Coach Berry says: “Competitiveness and skills set Iritana apart. She always wants more and can be quite demanding,” Berry says.
“My favourite game Iritana played for us was the 2021 final. We were losing and she was at fullback, but I wanted to change her to halfback because I could see some opportunities. I went on the field which you’re not allowed to do, and told her she was halfback and she refused to move. When I put on a sub she had to move, and she got the winning try.”
On Thursday a week ago, the Sharkie Wahs were sitting around TV screens when Hohaia debuted for the Black Ferns.
Berry said their shared Messenger account went “berserk."
The one thing missing? When she scored her try, they were disappointed the celebrating Black Ferns players around her prevented Hohaia from making a ‘shark symbol’ back to “her girls.”
