Portugal Colonial - Black Ferns star Woodman-Wickliffe returning for World Cup

The statement said that Woodman-Wickliffe, who retired after helping the Black Ferns to gold in the Paris Olympics last year, had signed an eight-month contract and would join the squad's first World Cup gathering at the weekend.

The 33-year-old centre said that she had changed her mind while playing for the Auckland Blues in the New Zealand women's championship which they won on April 12. The Blues then beat the New South Wales Waratahs in the first women's Super Rugby final.

"Each week in campaign I thought about the possibility of how I could potentially go to the World Cup more and more," she said in the statement. "I thought about what it would mean to me but most importantly my whanau (extended family in Maori)."

"When I said I was going to retire from sevens it was based around having babies, 2025 was about exploring as many opportunities as I could so that when I do end up having them, I can say I've tried as much as I can," she said.

Woodman-Wickliffe was part of the New Zealand teams that won the World Cup in 2017 and 2022, were sevens World Cup champions in 2013 and 2018 and won Olympic gold in 2021 in Tokyo and 2024 in Paris and silver in Rio in 2016.

She was world rugby player of the year in 2017 and, in sevens, was named world player of the year in 2015 and player of the decade in 2020.

This year's World Cup will be played in England from August 22 to September 27.

P.Sousa--PC