The Super Rugby Aupiki squads for the 2024 season have been announced this week. Trades have been made, notable amongst them is Renee Holmes heading back to her provincial roots, Kaipo Olsen-Baker flying south to Matatū and Krystal Murray planning to run out for her third franchise in three seasons.
Alice Soper: Super Rugby Aupiki player data tells us who is fighting through the churn
So that leaves the Hurricanes Poua. They were the home of defection last season, with the Northland Kauri contingent pulling in a number of Blues players to join them. They haven’t had such success in recruitment though this year. Coach Ngatai Walker, Victoria Grant’s maternity cover, is unknown in the women’s game which may explain why they were unable to attract established talent to the black and yellow.
A question that is underlined by all this churn is what this all means to the part that Aupiki plays in the women’s rugby pathway. While some transfers are fortuitous, allowing Black Fern combinations to get more game time together, this also prevents local talent from being able to break through. Meanwhile in other regions, this talent is being thrust forward, perhaps before it is ready, to cover for recruitment shortcomings. It’s not the stars so much as their understudies, where we are seeing a rolling cast of talent unable to establish themselves in these truncated seasons.
It’s on these edges, where we see this player group disengage after their Aupiki experience. Natahlia Moors, Olivia Ward-Duin, Pia Tapsell, all players that were built up and then disappeared almost as quickly. Aupiki’s promise was in giving us more time for players like these to develop but somehow it has provided us with less.
The statistics alone don’t tell us stories, they just suggest where we might find them. Turnover year on year, in an age of semi-professionalism isn’t yet news. But tracking this data can tell us who is holding tight to the stars as they emerge and which players can fight through the churn to shine. And those are the ones that should light our way forward.