Georgia Ponsonby

BIOGRAPHY

Black Fern #232

Georgia Ponsonby started her rugby career as a busy and bustling loosie, before switching to hooker and establishing herself as one of the best tight forwards in New Zealand.

She has been a member of three Canterbury Farah Palmer Cup Premiership winning teams (2018-2020), with a win record of 26 from 27 games.

Ponsonby was born in Gisborne, the daughter of farmers Steven and Rachel. They relocated to Taihape when Georgia was two, when Steven was employed as a shepherding manager. She was deeply immersed in netball as a teenager. A tenacious goal defense, Ponsonby was a Manawatu age group representative selection and played for a Massey University senior side aged 16.

Ponsonby was a boarder at Feilding High School, which has become something of a rugby nursery. The Whitelock family, Aaron Smith and Codie Taylor are old boys, but the driving force behind female rugby at Feilding High has been Welshman Rob Jones. Between 2006 and 2020 he coached the girls sevens and fifteens team to 268 wins in 354 matches in all competitions, scoring 12,408 points. He lured Ponsonby to the oval ball code in Year 12, something that came as a welcome change for her:

“I found rugby more social than netball. Rugby involved travel, after-matches, and billeting whereas in netball you’d rock up to the same court every Saturday.

“Rob Jones has been huge in my career. I still keep in regular contact with him. He establishes a really good connection with us girls and would do literally anything he could for us. He found the happy medium of having fun and succeeding at the same time.”

She was picked for the Manawatu Turbos in 2017 and made half a dozen appearances at number eight, with a 35-27 victory over Wellington and 86-8 slaying of Hawke’s Bay the highlights.

A scholarship took Ponsonby to Lincoln University in Canterbury, where she quickly settled in red and black. For two seasons she established herself as a consistent number eight but former Black Fern and Canterbury High Performance Manager Amanda Murphy demanded more. In 2020 Ponsonby shifted to hooker.

“If I was struggling in the scrum or throwing the ball in I wouldn’t have moved but I found I improved really quickly. A lot of the other loose forwards are bigger and more dynamic than me so hooker was a better fit. I honestly believe Canterbury has the best program in the country. The 2020 final against Waikato was the best game ever, we won in the last minute.”

In 2021 the success of her positional transformation was complete when she was picked for the Black Ferns Northern Tour. News of her selection took a while to filter through.

“I called my parents ten times in four hours and didn’t get a response so I called my sister and she got hold of Mum and Dad; first time. When I called Mum and Dad again they didn’t answer so I called another ten times.” Ponsonby wasn’t called into action for the English tests but featured in both outings against France.

“I was sick before my debut, didn’t sleep, didn’t eat and spent all night on the phone to my best friends. When I got on the field I was ridiculously calm though. I don’t like thinking about what's been or what if. I try to do my job as best I can.”

Stuff noted of Ponsonby’s effort in the last test of the tour: “Injected seven minutes into the second stanza for the second test and immediately got the lineout functioning and got into some carry work.”

Both tests were heavy defeats, however. Ponsonby recognised the difference between the well-drilled home side and the Black Ferns, who had come off a two-year test hiatus thanks to the pandemic.

“In New Zealand you have opportunities to build phases, hit holes and create gaps. The French were kick, kick, kick - which was frustrating to play. They didn’t allow you to play close quarter contact, you were turning around all the time. We got absolutely annihilated in the mauls. In the past I’ve been the hooker in the channel. On tour I was smack bang in the middle of the lineouts but I understand mauls a lot better now. It’s really about mindset. You either put your body on the line or die wondering.”

After she made the Black Ferns Rob Jones brewed a special cider for Ponsonby to enjoy.

Profile By Adam Julian