It is impressive how far the grade has come since Taihape defeated Marist with more than 300 spectators braving the horrid rain at Memorial Park on April 21.
Those early games were 10-a-side, but the positivity around the grade saw several women taking a cautious approach become encouraged to put their hands up.
Marist now have 28 registered players, Kaierau and Taihape around 26-27, and Marton up to 25.
Crowds have turned out at the Country Club on Fridays and Sundays in solid numbers, while Marton was able to offer fans two home adult club games on Saturdays for the first time in over five years since they lost their Tasman Tanning Premier men’s squad.
The bar takings alone in the four clubrooms show this can be a worthwhile, self-supporting endeavour, with players able to keep other weekend sports or family commitments due to the scheduling of evening fixtures.
While winless, Marton’s coach Dennis Tucker said the biggest success has been turning a squad of students from Palmerston North, ladies from Hunterville and local girls working in the township into a true team.
“Everything started with a slow start - we had 15 girls - but it just grew when other ladies saw they’re playing,” Tucker said.
“A lot of the girls got a bit of a shock - that full-contact that makes it really, really, tough.
“It’s a trust thing, but the culture became really, really good. Small towns, you don’t just jump into everything.
“It was actually giving back more, we had two [adult] home games and it was packed.
“I saw more people than I’ve seen in ages.”
Marton does not have the deep reservoir of talent the two metro clubs can call upon, with both Whanganui High and Cullinane proving excellent nurseries for talent, as witnessed by the success of the Under-18 representative team last year and the multiple-season journey of Whanganui Metro in the Manawatū women’s competition.
But Tucker has at least three players he would consider nominating for representative duties if they are interested, and to play Kaierau in a semifinal is just more on-the-job training.
“We didn’t come in here stupid, thinking we were going to pick off teams.
“Kaierau and Marist are amazing, they got some amazing players, and the girls threw the arms wide open to learn from them.
“That’s been our [message] all year, we’re going to go embrace what it is - it’s a semifinal.”
Co-coach of Kaierau, with Sereima Vakuruivalu, Doug Dunn agrees his side will give the Queen Bees the respect they deserve - they just want to see them on the field.
“Glass half-full, every round is different and we felt in the second round with Marton it was different - we had to work for our points,” Dunn said.
“We’ve still got to think, ‘this Friday [first]’. We’ve got the good mentality.
“We want to win but also create that balance with them so they come back next year.”
As well as secondary school stars like Hayley Gabriel, recently named in the Taranaki Whio wider squad, Dunn said they found players from the local touch and netball grades with transferable skills.
“We’d always wanted XV-a-side, we always had the numbers. We tried to accommodate as much as we can.
“We wanted to mirror what the men had. We’ve started to get a bit of a following.
“We tried to create that Friday night entertainment, in a sense.”
A proud club man, Marist coach Junior Nepia was a little stung by the last-minute loss to Kaierau but knows games with that kind of atmosphere can only be good as he has watched his player numbers swell.
“As a spectacle, as a product, it’s exciting,” Nepia said.
“Who wouldn’t want to see that? Especially on a Friday night - people were coming with fish ‘n’ chips, pizza and blankets.
“For such a small city, we tend to push a bit above our weight.
“It’s just word of mouth and people wanted to play. The girls see it as not a male thing.
“We’ve tried to make it ‘team first’. The moniker of ‘we before me’. As a team, I don’t think I could have asked for a better bunch.
“It’s a catch-22, you can only play 22.
“We’re trying to get the whole club [first] aspect back through the union.
“We’re all going to get better, the game’s going to get better and everyone’s going to get a lot out of it.”
Building the squad around Sosoli Talawadua, an eight-game capped Black Fern, 2017 World Cup winner and 2023 Hurricanes Poua player, Marist are trying to organise post-season games against the likes of Taranaki’s Southern RFC and Manawatū’s Old Boys Marist (OBM).
But for right now, they are not looking past Taihape.
“We know there is no final for us, we’ve still got work to do. We’re so keen,” said Nepia.
Taking that Taihape squad in hand is another former Black Fern, player/coach Ruth McKay, a 26-game international and 2010 World Cup winner.
She leads a team which started with 13 players but grew, thanks to an influx including six to seven from Ōhakune, who make the longest trips for training and games.
“We needed them to make it into a XVs comp, which is awesome for Taihape,” McKay said.
“The interest is definitely there. The pool is pretty depleted, so we’re relying on a lot of mothers and that generation.
“It’s the community that’s got to get behind it, whether it’s going to carry on or not. We can only try.”
Similar to Marton, McKay had to teach her players the rudimentary aspects of the code on the fly, with many forwards initially wanting to be backs and vice-versa.
“Half of our season was training for 10s, so to add in flankers and a fullback is a whole new way of game style.
“We got a bit of a building block for next year and what they need to improve on.
“They don’t put their heads down when we got those big losses.”
The teams did Wednesday training sessions this week ahead of their big games - and it all leads to the final on June 9, when one of them will pick up the newly-commissioned WRFU Women’s Trophy.
“I caught wind about how big it was,” said Nepia.
“I said to Brad Graham [Dave Hoskin Carriers Marist captain] ‘our trophy’s bigger than yours’.”
Semifinal draw
June 2: Kaierau v Marton Queen Bees, Country Club, 6.30pm; Marist v Taihape, Cooks Gardens, 7.30pm.
