NZ's New Year's Honours list is out folks... and hold onto your hats, it's every bit as exciting, riveting and motivating as you could have hoped for.
All Blacks coach from 2020 to 2023, Ian Foster is made a CNZM for services to rugby
If there were any doubts being nurtured about the place the game of rugby holds in NZ society, here is proof that all you really need to do is shit in rugby ball shapes, speak in the same fashion (I don't mean rugby ball shapes here) and stick around the scene long enough to be guaranteed a spot at the table when it comes to clunky and awkward links to ancient and obsolete traditions being handed around.
while John Hart - All Blacks coach from 1996 to 1999 is made a CNZM for services to sports governance.
Hart has been instrumental in the growth of the New Zealand Golf Open Tournament, was chair of the New Zealand 2011 Group that oversaw the management of New Zealand hosting the 2011 Rugby World Cup, was executive director of the New Zealand Warriors from 2005 to 2011, and has been a director of the Blues Rugby Club board since 2018.
In something of a tactical masterstroke, combining links to the hallowed ground of farming with a rugby career that really does have some genuine quality,
Sam Whitelock, who is made an ONZM, had more appearances for the All Blacks than any other player, taking the field for the national team 153 times before retiring from rugby in 2023. He captained the team 18 times during his 13 years at international level.
He has also been an ambassador for Farmstrong, a nationwide wellbeing programme for the rural community to help farm better.
Headlining the list though, is proud Kiwi golfer Lydia Ko who has been made a Dame
Notes accompanying the honours list describe Florida-based Ko as New Zealand’s most successful golfer, with 30 professional victories, including three major championships. She was the youngest person ever to win a professional golf tour event and youngest person ever to win a Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tour event.
Ko also won a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, bronze at the Tokyo games and silver at Rio in 2016.
In 2015, she became the youngest player ever to be ranked number 1 in professional golf. In 2024, at the age of 27, she became the 35th and youngest inductee to the LPGA Hall of Fame.
