Belinda Edwards: the driver behind Northland women's rugby

This is the last of the five finalists in the Northern Advocate's People's Choice Award for community sport "Good Sorts". From Friday, you will be able to vote for your favourite and the winner will be announced at the Northland Sports Awards on March 15. Today, we talk to Belinda Edwards, a former domestic rugby player who is determined to see the women's game grow in Northland.

If you're looking for people involved in the resurgence of Northland's women's rugby, Belinda Edwards would definitely be in the mix.

The 37-year-old, who played for rugby North Harbour and Canterbury, moved to Kerikeri from Whangārei four years ago and found no significant women's rugby programme up there. It has become her mission to see the heyday of Northland women's rugby return to the province.

Edwards, who worked as an accountant, held many volunteer positions including coach of the Kerikeri High School sevens team, a rugby club committee member and was just recently appointed to the Northland Rugby board.

It was her determination and passion to see women's rugby grow in Northland which made her a great finalist for the Northern Advocate's community sport "Good Sort" award.

Edwards moved to Northland in 2005 and on her arrival to the Far North in 2015, she knew she could do something productive in women's rugby.

"When I moved up there, there was no girl's rugby, only netball was the sport they could play easily without money or transport," she said.

"I had seen a couple of girls playing touch through the schools and I noticed there was a heap of talent up there and I knew some didn't play the other sports."

As the newest addition to the Northland Rugby board, Edwards has her sights set on furthering women's rugby in the region. Photo / Michael Cunningham

From there, Edwards became the coach of the Kerikeri High School girls under-15 sevens team and made an immediate impact in 2017, winning their grade at the national secondary schools Condor Sevens tournament, courtesy of a last-minute try from Rangimaria Waiatarere.

The Northland girls pipped Hamilton Girls' High School 21-20 in the final when Waiatarere received the ball on an angle 35-metres out from the tryline. She changed direction with speed and swerved past the retreating defence to touch down under the sticks. The successful conversion put Kerikeri up by one despite being outscored four tries to three.

Ironically, the Kerikeri team didn't qualify for the tournament as they were beaten by Whangārei Girls High School, but were brought in to make up the numbers.

"As soon as we got that invite, we were training twice a week and we just went hard out," Edwards said.

"It was a lot of dedication from those girls who trained hard, especially with no lead up games, so we just kept building with each win and managed to win it at the end."

After their success on a national stage, the rest of the Far North's rugby community was awake to the potential rugby talent in the region. In 2018, Edwards was integral in starting a local rugby competition, spanning four to five weeks between Kerikeri, Kaikohe and Kaitaia.

While New Zealand Rugby had a strong pathway for women in other regions, Edwards said there needed to be more focus on those pathways in Northland.

"We need to make the pathways more known in the Northland region and we also need to have more coaches that will coach women in a bigger competition because four to five weeks in a year is not enough."

With Northland recently named as the newest province to enter the women's domestic rugby competition, the Farah Palmer Cup, Edwards said she wanted to use her role on the Northland Rugby board to plan for the future.

My interests is definitely in the youth so we need to be building them up, creating a good competition and bring them through to the Farah Palmer team.

"We've got a good group of players now, so we need to think about the future and that's what I want to see."

Edwards said it was amazing for the region to get a berth in the women's competition because it was a step towards keeping talented sportspeople in the region.

"It's a real passion of mine to make Northland a place that people want to be and stay.

"At the moment, the call from Hamilton and Auckland with a full scholarship is too good to turn down, and I don't blame them or their parents, but there has to be something up here to hold onto them."

Voting for the award opens on Friday with the winner being announced at the Northland Sports Awards on March 15.