Steinmetz takes selection with grace after setbacks
Grace Steinmetz is only a couple of months removed from thinking she may never play for the Black Ferns.
But after seeing her dream denied by a few bad breaks, the promising outside back will this afternoon finally make her international debut.
Steinmetz, who has shone on the wing for Canterbury, is set to start at fullback for the Black Ferns in their second O’Reilly Cup test against Australia at Adelaide Oval.
It’s an occasion long in the making, yet also one Steinmetz began to wonder would ever come.
After training with the Black Ferns Sevens in 2019 and featuring in a trial match for the 15s the following year, Steinmetz began this year with the sights set on the World Cup.
She initially thought her international prospects had been scuppered by a foot injury suffered during Super Rugby Aupiki but, despite missing six weeks of action and vital training camps, Steinmetz gained selection for the Pacific Four Series in June.
A case of Covid-19, however, left her on the sidelines at the worst time — and left the 24-year-old thinking it wasn’t meant to be.
“It means so much,” Steinmetz told the Weekend Herald.
“After my foot injury and Covid, when I was pulled from the Pac Four series, I remember saying to my mum, ‘Maybe I’m just not meant to be a Black Fern. Everything happens for a reason and it’s just not happening’.
“For it to actually happen now . . . I felt a little bit teary. I didn’t express it too much, but inside it was just like, ‘wow, this is finally happening’.
“A few times it has been taken away from me and now to see my name there, I was like, wow, ‘this is the time’. It’s really exciting.”
That would be an appropriate descriptor of the way Steinmetz plays, bringing a level of enterprise that should endear her to head coach Wayne Smith’s expansive style.
The coach, who praised his new recruit for her “electric feet”, wants players willing to attack from their own goal line, a desire that makes Steinmetz feel like a kid again.
“It’s almost unheard of,” she said. “Going from provincial rugby, which is so structured, to Black Ferns, which in the past used to be more structured but is now less structured.
“It’s more just play what’s in front of you, play on top, and it’s just exciting looking for offloads.
“It is the way you play when you’re kids, so hopefully we can be running around and finding some open doorways, as Smithy would say.”
A good performance at fullback in Adelaide would further open the window for Steinmetz to reach this year’s World Cup.
But it was the wing where she found her home after first playing organised rugby at the University of Canterbury, where she last year completed her qualification to become a lawyer.
“I’m grateful that over the last couple of years I’ve had some great experience on the wing,” Steinmetz said.
“Knowing where I want my fullback to be, without even realising, I knew what I was getting myself in for.
“It’s also cool to be versatile and hopefully show that I can play at fullback as well as being on the edge,” she added.
On the edges today will be Ayesha Leti-I’iga and Ruby Tui, set to form an explosive back three.
Steinmetz, the niece of one-test All Black Paul, is anticipating the challenge of dictating play, though understandably wary of overthinking her debut until she hears the whistle in South Australia.
“It almost feels surreal,” she said. “It won’t feel real until I step out on that field and feel fit and ready to go.”