The Iconic Kiwi Woman: Bringing home rugby gold

Most rugby fans and readers of newspapers in New Zealand and Britain will by now be familiar with the story of the sexual escapades of 4 England Rugby team members and a host of teenage and twenty-something New Zealand girls at the Hilton Auckland New Zealand. 

So far we only know the identities of Kiwi Sophie Lewis and David Strettle. Sophie Lewis has since sold her story to The Sun. Describing her life changing experience, Sophie says, "He was fantastic in bed – awesome and had amazing staying power. He kept going like the Duracell Bunny in the TV ads... We must have done every position imaginable by the time we’d finished. What a night." Lucky Sophie... doing it in every way and making a tidy sum from it too for a NZ party girl (not a celebrity) - $12000. Its a far better rate than what most prostitutes get in Auckland I would say. 

Elsewhere that night, other England rugby players gang banged another girl who subsequently alleged rape without wanting to lay formal charges. Both girls met the rugby players at Auckland's Pony Club. It is believed that her boyfriend had some part to play in the allegations. As her boyfriend, I would be wondering what on earth she was doing drinking with the players at the Pony Club in the first place. She was reportedly part of a gaggle of rugby groupies witnesses observed "cavorting and lap dancing with the men on the night one claimed she was raped".

It is not only the reputation of English rugby and the wider rugby community that is at stake here however. It is also the reputation of Kiwi women. Given the heroic status of rugby in New Zealand, the All Blacks are in a way the contemporary icons of Kiwi masculinity, it is not surprising that a great number of Kiwi women desire men conforming to such images. The gold-digging aspect is perhaps something new, inspired by the likes of Heather Mills?

Are the Kiwi women in this scenario not today's iconic rugby loving NZ Woman? And if so, are they not in fact bringing shame on New Zealand as a culture?