Mumreturns to rugby
Talks to reporter mum, for the latest in our about being a sportswoman and a series.
It takes a village to raise a child, and Waikato women’s rugby star Teirea Te Aho is grateful to the community who helped raise hers. As a mother-of-three, Te Aho thought it would be impossible for her to return to sport.
From a young age, she’d been involved in rugby league, touch rugby and rugby union but parenthood brought with it new priorities.
But fast-forward a few years and Te Aho is among the top women rugby players in the Waikato.
‘‘My first game as a Waikato representative player, I couldn’t fit the top. It was like a crop top and when I saw that, that was my driver,’’ she said.
‘‘I wanted to keep playing so the top would get lower and lower. I was also the oldest in the Waikato team last year, but the union was very supportive.’’
Te Aho, 30, started her sporting career with the Cambridge Raiders Rugby League team.
In high school, there were no rugby options for women so she picked up netball and volleyball instead.
She then moved to Australia where she continued playing sport, returning to New Zealand in 2014.
‘‘I went to Australia with no kids and came back with three,’’ she said.
‘‘When I had children, and especially after the third, I thought I wouldn’t be able to play club rugby, let alone try to make a representative team.
‘‘I thought I was unfit and fat,’’ she said.
But she’s now played two seasons for the Hamilton Old Boys’ Club with a third coming up this year. She captained the club’s women’s team to win the Waikato club competition in 2017.
She also trialled and was selected for the Waikato Women’s Rugby Team in 2017 and intended to trial again for the 2018 representative season.
Te Aho is versatile, playing first-five for her club team and then moving to half-back for the Waikato squad.
Her experience and leadership was rewarded when she was named 2017 Women’s Club Player of the Year at the Waikato Rugby Union Awards.
‘‘The things I’ve slowly achieved and the goals I set myself, all started three years ago. It wasn’t just a spur-of-themoment thing,’’ Te Aho said.
‘‘I feel fortunate to earn the again.
‘‘A lot dads don’t have to worry about [the guilt].’’
Te Aho worked as a kohanga kaia¯whina at Te Ko Utu Kohanga Reo in Cambridge where she tried to incorporate ‘‘active teaching’’ into her work with tamariki.
It could involve simple skills such as passing and kicking a ball, for example.
‘‘And really just trying to get the tamariki excited and happy about being active with the help of other whaea, through waiata and kori tinana [song and body movement].’’
Research by Sport Waikato and Sport New Zealand showed the most common barriers preventing women from playing sport were time, cost, appearance
‘‘When I had children, and especially after the third, I thought I wouldn’t be able to play club rugby, let alone try to make a representative team.’’