Black Ferns' handy hero JOANAH'S SECRET WEAPON

A supportive family has helped the rugby star through her career

- Alice Soper

It's been eight months since the mighty Black Ferns lifted the Rugby World Cup, but a day doesn't go by that Joanah Ngan-Woo gets asked about her hand.

It was during the nail-biting last minutes of the final against England when she won the hearts of people around the country by swiping the ball away during a lineout, securing the win for New Zealand.

As cheers erupted in the stadium and in front of TVs around the country, the 27-year-old policy analyst became a part of rugby history. The feat won her team the Sporting Moment of the Year at the Halberg Awards and Joanah a whole new legion of fans.

"I can't go a day without hearing it, like every single day, and I just laugh," says Joanah. "People at the airport, when I'm trying to check in and are really rushed, say, 'Can I see The Hand?!""

But the day of her team's remarkable win wasn't the first time Joanah had experienced a stadium full of people chanting her name! As a four-year-old, her parents Rob and Anne took her to the first Wellington Sevens, and a confused Joanah wondered how on earth everyone knew her name. That day, however, fans were cheering on rugby great Jonah Lomu who, when Joanah was born in 1995, was representing the black jersey at the Rugby World Cup.

Her parents had combined his name with Joanah's grandmother Joan and named their daughter after the two.

Fast-forward to 2022 and if you were one of the lucky 45,000 fans that filled Eden Park in November, you were sharing the stands with Joanah's proud parents, who have been cheering her on from the sideline since she was young.

"The moment that actually happened [the World Cup lineout], Ann and I looked at each other," recalls Rob. "And we're like, 'Is she gonna do it this time?' Because we know she can do it."