Rugby: Coach drops out of Tuis women's campaign

Tom Blake

Hawke's Bay Tuis coach Tom Blake is pulling the pin on coaching the flagship women's rugby team.

"I'm dropping the Tuis and going back to the development side of things," Blake said yesterday. "I've told the [Hawke's Bay Rugby] Union that I'm not the right guy for the job and that I'm into development."

The revelation from the Havelock North Rugby Club women's coach came immediately after he pulled out of the Bay women's sevens campaign because of a paucity of players.

"It's a huge shame, especially for those who really wanted to play. Only five or six of them turned up for training after 10 to 12 in the first one so my manager and I looked at each other and wondered if we were simply wasting our time," he lamented, after starting training five weeks ago.

"To be honest the girls are scared of hard work but there's also cross codes with touch and basketball where you don't have to train much."

Blake said he had informed sevens players BOP, Manawatu and Taranaki were keen to invite them to attend trials but only his niece, Laurae Blake, 24, gave it a crack.

Krysten Duffill left the province two years ago to play Manawatu club footy "because she got despondent with Bay rugby".

"We could lose more players," Tom Blake cautioned but stressed the Tuis should remain as pathway for young to aspire to.

It was imperative, he said, to have a secondary schoolgirls' rep squad.