Straight Up

Product Information

There's nothing as inspiring as seeing your mum get out of a bad relationship and organise and reach out and get help. It just makes me feel like I can do anything. Tui set out to write a sports book and ended up with an astounding masterpiece on life. At various times it crosses into self-care, leadership, relationships and teamwork. Each chapter concludes with a piece of advice from ‘Ruby’s training bag’. If you talk to anyone in New Zealand, that is straight up what it’s like. I didn’t even know we were live on TV, I was just giving her – and then she started asking me questions. I was like, ‘Oh Jo, we’re like, on TV.’” A theme that constantly arises with Tui is her purpose. She feels a deep sense of responsibility – in life, relationships, rugby and commercial partnerships. We had stopped playing for a long time. By the time I got pulled into that interview, I look up and all three tiers [of the stand] are chokka, I’d never seen it. And so, I was like, ‘Oh, my guys are keen! My guys are here for the party!’

One fan posted on social media: “Men’s rugby can learn a lot from Ruby Tui. Her enthusiasm and originality is f***ing infectious … legend.” We can put on a World Cup that makes the rest of the world go 'whoa, New Zealand truly is the home of rugby'. The book begins where everyone begins: with childhood and the profound ways that our early years shape who we are. Tui’s early life shifts between her large and loving Sāmoan family (on her dad’s side) and her more isolated palagi one (her mum’s). That she was loved is a fact often affirmed: Tui’s perspective throughout the book is frank and without blame, without bitterness or even regret. Very gently, with a tone of patience and an acceptance that becomes the undercurrent of the entire book, Tui describes a childhood made unstable by alcoholism, drug abuse and psychological and physical violence. And Dad? “He’s not as much of an avid reader as Mum, but he’s probably been more open than Mum about his situation. When I was talking to him, I was like, ‘I believe alcoholism in this country is a lot more rife than is talked about or we would like to believe, or is represented anywhere really’. What happens to us, especially what happens to us as children, doesn't need to define who we are as adults. And it's never too late to look into these things that happened to us.

Though US national teams have struggled recently, the men failing to qualify for this year’s World Cup in France and the women losing a quarter-final to Canada in New Zealand last year, World Rugby is increasingly focused on the US. The 2031 men’s World Cup and 2033 women’s World Cup will be played on American soil.

She is philosophical about whether rugby, a sport fighting concussion lawsuits and blighted by failing financial models, is in need of more authentic players such as her, instead emphasising how the women’s and men’s games can cohabit the same space.Ruby is such an inspiration lady and a central reason why the world fell in love with her and her fellow sevens sisters. They are breaking down so may glass ceilings on the old boys rugby, not just in New Zealand but in the world. She is key player who said refused to let the old boys club tell her that women’s ruby doesn’t matter, that they would never win any tournaments, medal or world cups and especially she wasn’t not listening when they told her that women’s rugby wouldn’t sell out Eden Park. I mean she only wrote the books because she went to a bookstore and saw that there was only ONE book about a sportswomen (and none from a Samoan I bet). She doesn’t like to be told she can’t do something because of her gender or ethnicity and I love that.