Clarke rides high on rugby wave

A change of winter codes is working the oracle for Michele Clarke.
After a successful soccer career which saw her play for her country on 13 occasions the Masterton policewoman is part of the Eketahuna side which is making big waves in the premier division of the Manawatu women's rugby competition.
And Clarke has already caught the eye of the Manawatu NPC selectors who have been impressed enough with her potential to include her in a training squad preparing for their involvement in the country's top provincial league.
For Clarke the transition to rugby was something she had often considered during her soccer playing days and her non-selection in the New Zealand team for last season's World Cup campaign gave her the stimulus needed to try her hand at the oval ball game.
"It wasn't so much that I missed out that frustrated me but the fact I was never told why," Clarke said. "But it was a great chance to try something different so I decided to give rugby a go."
Clarke made her first appearance for Eketahuna on the wing and while she enjoyed the experience she admits to taking time to come to grips with even the very basics of the game.
"The first couple of matches I didn't really know a lot, and it probably showed," she recalled. "I knew to run hard whenever I got the ball but that was about it."
A switch to fullback was welcomed by Clarke because it provided a better chance for her to study the action going on in front of her, and learn from it.
"You can pick up things easier from fullback, you can often work out what the opposition is going to do before they actually do it," she said.
Clarke also found that fullback gave her greater opportunity to develop her tackling skills.
"At fullback you are sometimes the only one between the ball carrier and the goalline and you have to make the tackle count, you can't afford to back off," she said.
Clarke is finding that the physical toll on the body between soccer and rugby is somewhat different as well with all the running in soccer tending to place the most stress on the legs and the greater contact in rugby doing likewise to the upper body.
"I was pretty sore after that first game of rugby but I guess you get used to it & at least I hope so," she quipped.
Clarke admits her selection in the Manawatu training squad came as a surprise because she had gone into rugby with the idea of seeing how she handled it rather than setting herself any higher goals.
"Honestly I would have just been happy to do a decent job for Eketahuna, I wasn't thinking past that," she said.