Pirongia with their trophy at the Pita Pit Beach 5s Rugby Festival at Mount Maunganui.
Pirongia with their trophy at the Pita Pit Beach 5s Rugby Festival at Mount Maunganui.
The experienced Deano Herewini will coach the new Pirongia Rugby Sports Club Women’s team heading into 2024, with hopes of playing in the Waikato Rugby premier division.
After several successful seasons with the Hamilton Old Boys Huskiez team, Herewini is excited about this new venture - having been involved in the women’s game for over 25 years.
Assisted by former Hamilton Girls’ High School First XV coach and director of rugby Roger Hodgson, Sarah Ryan will manage the team.
The team have been training for about two months and also took two teams to the second annual Pita Pit Beach 5s Rugby Festival at Mount Maunganui last weekend.
More than 80 tries were scored between the two Pirongia teams, winning the tournament overall.
Herewini said wives and partners of players in the Pirongia men’s team were key to getting the women’s team going.
“They said let’s just try. They got a couple of key people, like myself, involved and all of a sudden it’s gone from a hope to looking very successful.”
Keep coming, keep learning and bring a friend is the message the management has instilled into the players.
“Our learnings were good and it was a fun environment so one person brought a friend and then everyone brought a friend, with hardly any social media coverage. We’ve got about 26 players on our books.
“I’d probably say that 90 per cent of the girls are all brand new, they’ve never played rugby before. A lot of netballers are making the shift across.
“The ones who don’t turn up will always message and apologise. I say you look after your family first. It’s family first and then the sport.”
Pirongia Rugby Sports Club Women's team training.
The majority of players are from Pirongia, Kāwhia and Te Awamutu.
“There’s probably only three players that don’t have a Pirongia connection which is quite a success story in quite a short window.
“The girls are jumping leaps and bounds. If you came and saw the first session two months ago, you would not think it was the same team. It’s been a big change - purely based on themselves. Simple explanations, player-driven and plenty of questions asked.”
The leadership group also have extra training sessions to help lead by example at the full team training.
F45 Te Awamutu owner Connor Moore has also joined as the trainer, giving the players a free F45 session on Mondays and helping with training and match day warm-ups.
Pirongia’s junior girls will get the important jobs, like being the ball girls, giving a connection between the senior and junior teams, and giving them role models to look up to.
“One of the key things is making sure that the Pirongia women are on the map for providing an environment that is welcoming for everybody,” Herewini says.
“I’m just a small piece of the jigsaw. The club has been very supportive, there have been zero speedbumps and it’s all been positive.”
The team will wear jerseys from Hamilton-based Kukri, the first time the company have made a women’s cut kit.
Herewini is also Waikato Rugby Union’s Game Developer for junior rugby and hopes to work closely with the Te Awamutu College girls too, giving both the Pirongia and Kihikihi women’s club teams equal opportunities.
“We just want to make sure the pathway is a lot easier, clearer and user-friendly - getting more girls staying locally and playing the game. I’ll paint the picture for both clubs and the players can decide where they want to go.”
If anyone is interested in being involved, on or off the field or sponsorship-wise, contact Herewini via deanoh@mooloo.co.nz or 021 088 92806.
Jesse Wood is a multimedia journalist based in Te Awamutu. He joined the Te Awamutu Courier and NZME in 2020.
