Winiata on fast track to greatness
OPINION: Selica Winiata may have her path to the New Zealand Sevens team blocked, but she remains on track to be the country’s greatest ever women’s player.
Depending on who you talk to, Anna Richards and Farah Palmer share that title at the moment.
While Winiata, 30, is not at their level yet, she is well on the way.
Recent events have only enhanced her reputation. Her exclusion from the contracted sevens squad by new coach Allan Bunting sparked national attention in January.
Of the current crop of women players, there is probably only three who have profiles big enough to spark that level of interest - Winiata, Sarah Goss and Portia Woodman.
The real reasons of Winiata’s omission have yet to be made clear but her place on the women’s rugby hierarchy is becoming more and more prominent.
The 2016 New Zealand Rugby women’s player of the year has a tryscoring record which may never be matched.
The outside back, dubbed Shorty by team-mates, belies her diminutive frame (1.63m, 54kg) as she carves her way to the tryline
on a regular basis. She has played 89 first-class games and scored 83 tries and is 29 tries ahead of the next Kiwi woman on the list - Vanessa Cootes with 54 tries.
Winiata is one of the most potent attacking weapons, not just women’s rugby, but rugby period.
She is the women’s equivalent of Christian Cullen, or perhaps Welsh great Shane Williams is a better comparison due to his smaller frame and ability to consistently get to the try line.
Last season she dotted down for 18 first-class tries. That tied for the best in the country with Beauden Barrett. But Winiata achieved the feat in 11 games while it took Barrett 31 games to get there.
If Winiata were a male, she would be being chased by overseas clubs with multi-million dollar contracts.
Instead she is shunned of a women’s seven contract and holds down a job in the police while playing at the top level.
But while being on the outer for sevens is disappointing, there is the Women’s Rugby World Cup in Ireland in August to look forward to. There she will have a chance to her further legacy and take another step closer to Palmer and Richards.