Stuff Digital Edition

The Black Fern who ‘hated’ rugby

Joseph Pearson

One of the women’s game’s most powerful, dynamic runners was once scared at the prospect of playing rugby.

The two sisters were then the only girls in a club team full of boys.

‘‘Honestly, I didn’t like it, the physicality,’’ the younger Faleafaga, Dhys told Stuff.

‘‘After the games, I would come home crying and tell my mum: ‘I don’t want to play any more’.

‘‘I thought I was just going to play netball and did up until 2015.’’

Faleafaga would play rugby again at Wellington’s St Mary’s College in 2015 and has never looked back.

She became one of the first contracted Black Ferns in her final school year in 2018 and first played international rugby with the world-beating Black Ferns sevens in 2019.

‘‘I was never that interested in the sport until college,’’ she said. ‘‘I hated it when I was little, but I’m glad I picked it up again.’’

Faleafaga captained St Mary’s College’s First XV to their first top four national tournament title in 2017 and made her provincial debut for the Wellington Pride in the Farah Palmer Cup (FPC) the same year, when she moved from the forwards out to the wing.

She only returned to No 8 in the 15-a-side game as recently as last year because she wanted more of the ball and to get stuck into more collisions in attack and defence. ‘‘I wanted to be involved in the game. I was finding it boring out on the wing,’’ she said.

The 20-year-old is still uncapped at test level in 15s, but she has been called up for the Black Ferns’ northern tour for two tests each against England and France – two of their biggest challengers for the defence of their World Cup title on home soil next year.

The Wellington No 8 is one of six loose forwards heading to Europe in October after a spell as a fully contracted sevens player in Mount Maunganui, which is the base of the champion Kiwi women’s team who have won every major title in sevens after their Olympic victory in Tokyo in July. Exposure to that professional environment has taught her some good habits, she said.

‘‘I used to rock up to games without eating breakfast. I didn’t realise how much impact that would have on my game, learning that you need food for when you train and play.

‘‘Then there’s also the mental side. I wasn’t as vulnerable as I am now,’’ she said.

Faleafaga was one of the final players to miss the cut for Tokyo, returning home after the Black Ferns sevens’ pre-Olympic training camp in Townsville, Australia.

The FPC was next with Wellington, playing alongside elder sister Lyric, and Faleafaga’s form earned her a spot in the Black Ferns’ squad for a potential test debut. Wellington can confirm their place in a three-team finals series in the premiership with Canterbury and Waikato if they earn a point against Bay of Plenty tomorrow, although the end of the FPC has been disrupted by last month’s Covid-19 outbreak.

Sport

en-nz

2021-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/282140704525886

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