Rolemodels inspire thousands
‘‘There is a big push to get these role models, the likes of the Black Ferns and Farah Palmer Cup players, into the community.’’
Women’s rugby is on the rise; 15-year-old Kayla Hauparoa-Rei and more than 22,000 other women are excelling at it.
Hauparoa-Rei played an integral role for the Paremata Plimmerton Rugby Football Club’s first women team in 20 years, scoring a hat-trick in the August women’s division two final against Petone.
Her first five-eighth skills helped lead the Aotea College Girl’s First XV team to a WelTec Girls Premier one final against St Mary’s College.
Selectors for the Wellington Samoa Women’s team took notice and enlisted her, tackling the Wellington Tongan Women in September.
What started out as a fun way to pass the time with friends quickly became a passion for Hauparoa-Rei.
The year 11 Aotea College student hopes to follow in the footsteps of her idols, Poriruaborn All Black TJ Perenara and Black Fern and development officer Kendra Cocksedge, and turn rugby into a career.
She is one of thousands of women registering for New Zealand’s national sport, which hit the governing body’s target five years early in 2016.
The number of total registered rugby players surpassed 156,000 people in that same year, up 3 percent on 2015.
Head of women’s rugby development Cate Sexton says the growth in women’s rugby comes down to increased visibility of the Black Ferns and supporting the game at a grassroots level.
Since the national women’s rugby team won its latest World Cup, thousands joined the fivetime world champions in celebrations in Auckland and then Wellington.
‘‘Having role models, like the Sevens Women’s team winning silver at the Rio Olympics [in 2016], playing on the world stage where it’s all being televised is massive.
‘‘And now there is a big push to get these role models, the likes of the Black Ferns and Farah Palmer Cup players, into the community.’’
But as numbers continue to grow, Sexton says New Zealand Rugby’s priority is providing the infrastructure to support it.
‘‘We’re working with the provincial unions around strategic funding, and getting people on the ground to really focus on the female game to own it as theirs rather than just tacking it on to something.
‘‘So, we’re really conscious that the experiences people have of rugby, and being females in rugby, are really positive.
‘‘We have to ensure that that happens and that there is sustainability rather than just fluctuation of numbers.’’