{"id":366641,"date":"2025-08-23T07:13:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T07:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/366641\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T07:13:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T07:13:10","slug":"pressure-is-a-privilege-braxton-sorensen-mcgee-on-being-new-zealands-youngest-star-womens-rugby-world-cup-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/366641\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Pressure is a privilege\u2019: Braxton Sorensen-McGee on being New Zealand\u2019s youngest star | Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in 2022, Braxton Sorensen-McGee was in the Eden Park crowd to watch the heart-stopping semi-final between France and New Zealand. The then 16-year-old, at the ground with her school team, remembers the moment of relief when a last-minute French penalty goal attempt drifted wide, allowing the Black Ferns to scrape through to the final of the Women\u2019s World Cup. In another gripping contest against arch-rivals England, New Zealand went on to win the tournament.<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, Sorensen-McGee hopes to play a decisive role in retaining the title<\/a>. After a breakout 2025, the 18-year-old is the youngest member of the Black Ferns squad, who take on Spain on Monday morning (NZT) in their opening act of the 2025 Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup, hosted by England.<\/p>\n

Instead of just watching, as she did that spring evening in 2022, the three-Test full-back hopes to help the Black Ferns secure a record seventh World Cup title \u2013 and their third in succession.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone believes that we got it, and we back each other. We just need to be present in the moment and just stay in it \u2026 I think we have the team,\u201d she told the Guardian over the phone on her lunch break between training sessions before leaving New Zealand<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Braxton Sorensen-McGee of the Black Ferns scores a try during the Pacific Four Test Series match between the Wallaroos and the Black Ferns in Newcastle, 2025. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts\/AAP<\/p>\n

Sorensen-McGee is one of a number of prominent young players in the Black Ferns\u2019 33-woman squad from which that team will be selected. Others include the fleet-footed loose-forward Jorja Miller, 21, who has dominated the international sevens game since making her debut three years ago; powerful ball-running prop Veisinia Mahutariki-Fakalelu, 20; and Logo-I-Pulotu Lemapu-Atai\u2019i Sylvia Brunt, the bruising centre who, despite being just 21, has already won 25 Test caps for the Black Ferns, including several appearances at the previous World Cup.<\/p>\n

At the other end of the spectrum, older heads such as co-captain and first five-eighth Ruahei Demant, winger Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, and mainstays of the forward pack like hooker Georgia Ponsonby and co-captain Kennedy Tukuafu have their hands on the tiller. Another veteran, 30-year-old Theresa Setefano, the second five-eighth who scored a crucial late try in that French semi-final, described the importance of having youthful exuberance to draw on during long, gruelling campaigns like a World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s probably where the young girls\u2019 energy will help us older ones as well. They love to have fun. And I feel like, if you\u2019re under 21, your energy levels are just out of the gate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Setefano says young and old in the squad will \u201cbe leaning on each other in different aspects\u201d. Players like herself, she says, can help the less experienced \u201cfocus on the right things, try and shut out the noise, because there will be a lot of external noise, and it\u2019s a long, long campaign as well\u201d.<\/p>\n

Theresa Setefano. \u2018If you\u2019re under 21, your energy levels are just out of the gate.\u2019 Photograph: Jack Thomas\/World Rugby\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Sorensen-McGee says she is looking to her elders to help cope with the intensity of World Cup rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey know what pressure is like,\u201d she says. \u201cThey know how to be in difficult moments and hard times \u2026 [We] look up to them, play off them, and seeing them do it gives us confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her case, knowing that a back-three colleague of Woodman-Wickliffe\u2019s experience and calibre \u201chas got my back\u201d is a huge boost; Sorensen-McGee hopes the combination they formed during this year\u2019s Super Rugby Aupiki campaign for the Blues will help power the Black Ferns to the title.<\/p>\n

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Both Sorensen-McGee and Setefano acknowledged the afterglow of the 2022 campaign<\/a>, both from the perspective of a close-fought tournament eventually \u2013 and very emotionally \u2013 won by the home team in front of their adoring fans, and as a sporting spectacle that raised the profile of women\u2019s game globally. Setefano remembers the tournament as something \u201clike a movie or a fairytale, you could say, everything just fell into place for us\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sorensen-McGee spoke of the Black Ferns\u2019 history as a legacy she was desperate to help uphold. But both players are trying not to let thoughts of that tournament cloud their thinking about this one.<\/p>\n

Setefano: \u201cIt is a clean slate this time around. Nothing you did in the past will really matter coming into this World Cup here. So we will take it one game at a time. Just focus on ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

But nor is the squad unrealistic about the pressure they will face \u2013 and about how different \u2013 and how belligerent \u2013 that pressure could be when compared with the army of poi-wielding supporters <\/a>who urged them on to overcome England during that epic final at a sold-out Eden Park three years ago. Both teams could meet again at the sharp end of this tournament, at a sold-out Twickenham for the final with a record 82,000 fans in the grandstands<\/a>, almost all of them in the English corner, baying for revenge. Setefano says the \u201ctighter and more connected\u201d the team can be, the better they will deal with that pressure.<\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s Springbok women\u2019s rugby team in action against New Zealand\u2019s Black Ferns at Athlone stadium, ahead of the 2025 Rugby World Cup. Photograph: Esa Alexander\/Reuters<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are aware that it will be a different sort of atmosphere in the UK, and so we are prepared for that. We know we\u2019ll have each other\u2019s backs, and we know that our whole country will be supporting us back at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sorensen-McGee, whose maturity Setefano speaks highly of, welcomes that pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think pressure is a privilege. Like, it\u2019s a privilege to have this job, to be able to put on the Black Ferns jersey, to be able to train every day. Yeah, it\u2019s pretty much a privilege for me. I don\u2019t look too much on it as pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though it\u2019s my first World Cup, I back my ability to go out there and show the world what I\u2019m like. And I think we have the team to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back in 2022, Braxton Sorensen-McGee was in the Eden Park crowd to watch the heart-stopping semi-final between France…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-366641","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115076844974099584","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}