King enjoys ‘very healing’ group hug with New Zealand women’s rugby team

The monarch hosted the Black Ferns at Buckingham Palace, where a request for a hug turned into something of a scrum

The King found himself at the centre of a hug that turned into a scrum as he hosted the New Zealand women’s rugby team at Buckingham Palace.
The monarch, 75, who has been undergoing treatment for cancer, told the Black Ferns that he found the “warm hug” to be “very healing” as he delivered an off-the-cuff speech to the team ahead of their match against England’s Red Roses at Twickenham on Saturday.
Addressing the players in the Bow Room at the Palace, the King said: “I much appreciate this chance to meet you and to have such a warm hug from you. Very healing.”
Speaking about a recent decision not to include New Zealand in his travel plans when he visits Australia next month, the King said: “I’m extremely sorry I can’t come to New Zealand in later October – it’s on doctors’ orders.
“But I hope there will be another excuse [to visit] before too long. In the meantime, give my love to New Zealand.”
The King told the players, who are mostly in their twenties: “I hope you make the most of your time in the team because you don’t stay young for very long. In my experience it goes quicker than you think.”
The King had earlier arrived in the 1844 room, greeting Allan Bunting, the team’s director of rugby, with a hongi – a traditional Maori greeting of pressing noses together.
He met Mark Robinson, the chief executive of New Zealand rugby, Shannon Austin, the deputy high commissioner, and Kennedy Tukuafu and Ruahei Demant, the two captains of the team.
As he went through to the Bow Room, Charles met the other players and managed to get drawn into a group hug that caused him to burst out laughing.
Ayesha Leti-I’iga, a 25-year-old winger, said: “I asked him ‘can we have a hug?’ and the King said ‘yes’ but as I went in to hug him the others all jumped on top so it turned into more of a scrum.”
Liana Mikaele-Tu’u, a 22-year-old forward, said: “I thought you said ‘we’, so we all got involved!”
The King then had a separate hug with Tanya Kalounivale, 25, a prop.
She said: “The King said his position when he played rugby was a back-rower – a lock. He said that was the worst position because when the scrum collapses you’re in the middle of it.”
After meeting the players, Charles received a Black Ferns jersey signed by the squad and a replica wooden waka, a traditional maori boat engraved with the New Zealand proverb: “We are all in this together.”
Accepting the gifts, the King said: “I’m not sure I deserve this.” He told the team: “You can always blame me if you don’t win – you can say I interrupted your training.”
The King offered the squad his condolences for the death of Kiingi Tuheitia, the Maori king, whom he had known for decades.
He said that he had “spoken to him on the telephone so recently”, adding: “Suddenly to hear that he had died was a real shock.”
The team performed a waiata, a traditional song, for the King, before they posed together for a group photograph on the Grand Staircase.
The King and Queen will travel to Australia and Samoa in October. The visit to Australia will be Charles’s first visit to a Commonwealth realm since ascending the throne two years ago.
A Palace spokesman said on Tuesday that “difficult decisions” had been taken about the King’s programme to ensure the monarch’s comfort and wellbeing.