As Woman’s Day arrives at the house of Black Fern Kelly Brazier and her wife Tahlia, their two-year-old son Oakley rushes to the door. With blond hair and blue eyes, he’s the spitting image of Kelly.
“We’re not sure what happened there,” laughs Kelly, 33. “Tahlia and I thought her dark hair and olive skin would definitely come through as the dominant genes – that’s what I remember learning
in science class anyway!”
Tahlia carried Oakley, conceived with the help of a sperm donor – someone with light features, like Kelly. And now the Papamoa-based couple are welcoming a second son, due in March, with the same donor.
“Oakley will be stoked,” says Kelly. “Maybe not initially, but when he’s got a little mate to run around with, he’ll love it.”
Kelly and Tahlia, 29, are yet to settle on a name for their soon-to-be bundle, carried again by Tahlia, who is more than happy to be the birth mum. “Kelly’s so busy these days, it just makes more sense for me to do it again,” she explains.
Indeed, the day after talking to us, Kelly flew out to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, then over to Cape Town for the World Rugby Sevens Series. She and the Black Ferns Sevens team took out the tournament, beating the Aussies in a triumphant final.
It’s a gruelling schedule. Even at home during training, the team gets just one day of recovery during the week, then they head into performance week with no days off at all. Tours can last for weeks and it can be tough for the families, but Kelly says they got lucky with Oakley.
“He’s quite easy-going and just goes along with it,” shares Kelly. “They’re both used to me coming and going. They get into a routine when I’m away, then I come back and mess it all up again!”
Kelly on her way to a try at the World Rugby Sevens Series in South Africa.
With women’s rugby taking its hold on the New Zealand public in 2022, it seems no one is more surprised than the players themselves, especially Kelly. She’s one of the few remaining Ferns who has experienced both eras of women’s rugby in Aotearoa.
“When it was announced the World Cup would be in New Zealand, we were all really worried,” admits Kelly. “We played England and France in Europe in 2021, and around 20,000 people were packed into those stadiums. Back home, we would usually only get a couple of thousand people watching. We thought it would be a bit shameful if that was the turnout!”
But they needn’t have fretted. More than 40,000 people attended the headline match between New Zealand and Australia at Eden Park in November. Though Kelly didn’t play in the World Cup, she has been fundamental in setting the team up for success. She debuted for the Black Ferns in 2009 and went on to win four World Cup titles. She even brought home gold at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games, a first for the Black Ferns Sevens.
“I’ve had people say, ‘I bet you wish you were born 10 years later,’ because, in a way, women’s rugby is just now becoming popular,” says Kelly. “But I’m grateful for the times I’ve had in terms of playing with legends like Anna Richards. You didn’t get paid, you played two tests a year and you just played for the pure love of it. If I didn’t play alongside those girls in that era, I wouldn’t be as grateful as I am for what we get given today. This is my full-time job and those ladies never had that.”
The perks have never been better for the Black Ferns, especially when it comes to travel. Where once they were all crammed into economy and expected to play games almost upon landing, the team now rests before and after matches.
“I never imagined this would be possible,” says Kelly. “We fly first class and see 40,000 people packed into a stadium to watch women’s rugby. It’s unreal.”
The only hard part for Kelly, she says, is leaving Tahlia and Oakley behind.
Oakley will be sharing his mums with a baby brother in March. “He’ll be stoked,” says Kelly.
“If he knows there’s a plane involved, he knows I’m away for a while. I talk to him on the phone whenever I can, but most of the time he hangs up on me.” Shaking her head with laughter, she adds, “He loves pushing that red button!”
But with a new teammate entering the house, both Kelly and Tahlia are looking forward to starting their own squad.
Kelly smiles, “I’ve always been a bit of a tomboy, so I’m really excited!”
