Jorja Miller injury silence raises questions over Black Ferns transparency - Opinion

THE FACTS

• Black Ferns flanker Jorja Miller will miss the team’s semifinal against Canada due to injury.
• Team management cited Miller’s privacy as grounds for silence.
• This approach contrasts with the team’s previously open and inclusive communication style.

Oh dear, it’s finally happened. New Zealand Rugby ham-fistedness and secret-squirrel-speak has wormed its way into the Black Ferns camp at the World Cup.

All the way from the last World Cup to this one, the Black Ferns have been riding a wave of approval and fandom. The women’s natural, inclusive ease has been infectious, as has their delight at, not so much rivalling the All Blacks men, but forging their own path.

Right from the day that Ruby Tui led the crowd in a rendition of Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi, we have all exclaimed how much more natural than the men were the Black Ferns, refreshingly untainted by the heavy mantle of professionalism, showing the rest of rugby the way to attract and entertain fans.

That is, until no one would say what Jorja Miller’s injury was. The flanker has been ruled out of this weekend’s Rugby World Cup semifinal and asked at a press conference about Miller’s injury and the likelihood of returning for the World Cup final, coach Allan Bunting said she had “requested privacy around the injury”. When further questions inevitably came, team media manager Savannah Tafau-Levy intervened: “Question answered. We’ll move on.” A journalist from Reuters later asked if Miller would be available for the final if the Black Ferns could get past Canada. “Due to respecting the players,” Tafau-Levy said, “we can’t release any extra information on that.”

I mean, seriously? They are relegating fans to the status of undeserving people who don’t merit knowing what’s happened to the Black Ferns’ best player. They’re in England right now so perhaps some of the snobbery that still exists there is contagious.

Alan Bennett, the formidable English playwright and author, once wrote of a man arrested after exposing himself in the doorway of a Sainsbury supermarket: “Tesco, you could understand it.” The inference being that Sainsbury’s is an upmarket store where the only things customers expose is their good breeding and Tesco, well, isn’t.

With this ridiculous secrecy on the health of Miller, the Black Ferns have thus exposed themselves as belonging to the Tesco school of communications. Quite what they would lose by answering transparently – as the Black Ferns have admirably done to this point – is unclear.

Okay, if what’s wrong is a life-threatening illness or something delicate Miller doesn’t want bandied about, fair enough. However, there was a video posted on social media by a New Zealand Rugby contractor, with Miller’s absence attributed to a hamstring injury. The video was later edited to remove the hamstring reference. So, do the Ferns think we are idiots? Or it wasn’t actually a hamstring? The only other reason I can think of for this strange subterfuge is that Miller isn’t injured and they are playing games with the Canadians for the World Cup semifinal – springing a surprise when Miller runs out. That seems far-fetched but is not unknown in rugby. It’s just not associated with the Black Ferns.

There was once an All Blacks communications manager who was nicknamed the “Media Prevention Officer” by media corps who never quite came to terms with the closed-door nature of things then.

Many moons ago, I was involved with the appointment of Jane Dent, the very smart former TV reporter who became the All Blacks media comms person – and did a great job of opening doors. It took a woman. Now, the women’s team is shutting things down where the doors have previously not just been open – but joyously so.

It’s a bad look for a rugby team that has been so feel-good and it’s a shame to see the Black Ferns now treading this previously untrodden ground.

I am one of a growing number of males who follow the Black Ferns and watch their games – and will be glued to the semifinal. It’ll be a fine match, with or without Miller. However, all this no-talky, no-speaky nonsense smells heavily of what we thought the inclusive Black Ferns were charmingly free of: the kind of snobbish, exclusive communications stance that died out decades ago; the intimation that we, the fans, only deserve to be relayed information the Black Ferns think appropriate. I wonder what the players think.

It made me think of a quote from Queen Elizabeth, made when I was living and working in the UK, speaking about a troublesome relative, Princess Michael of Kent: “Princess Michael is far too grand for the likes of us.”

Paul Lewis writes about rugby, cricket, league, football, yachting, golf, the Olympics and Commonwealth Games.