However, an ankle injury in summer 2014-15 saw her step aside to rehab, and then the NZRL came calling about appearing for the Kiwi Ferns team at the new-look Auckland Nines tournament.
"I tried for so many years to crack the Black Ferns, I just thought I needed a rest," Sue said.
Her Nines experience led to joining the full Kiwi Ferns team to play an Anzac test in April 2015, initially being included as the "18th man" of the squad until the team helped convince the selectors to give her a place in the match day side.
Going forward, NZRL wanted a fulltime commitment from Sue to stick with league, however the talented scrumhalf still felt like she had unfinished business back in union, and decided to have another crack with the Manawatu Cyclones in the 2016 Farah Palmer Cup.
"What happened was I was player/coach for my club team. We had a really good season.
"I knew the Black Ferns was still an opportunity, and I was still keen."
There were two key factors that saw her finally break through the glass ceiling.
First was the crucial support of Black Ferns assistant coach Grant Keenan, who local fans will remember introduced Whanganui's standout schoolboy Stephen Perofeta into his NZ Heartland XV last year.
Next was the relatively new concept of "coded clips" - where women's NPC games, whether televised on Sky TV or not, are recorded and then broken down into segments for selectors to review so they can look at specific players in scrums, lineouts, or scoring tries.
As the Cyclones industrious halfback, Sue was in most of the Manawatu footage, and she knew the selectors had started singling out her game tapes when Keenan approached to ask if she could be versatile enough to cover other backline positions.
"I'm one game off my 50th game for the Cyclones, so I'm not new to the scene. But I'd always been the third string [nationally]," Sue said.
"I'm grateful they invested the funding and the footage. No one could escape performing poorly."
The NZRFU also brought the women's Black Ferns and Sevens squads together for a combined training hub, and it is no surprise that eight Sevens players, including three of the silver medallists from the Rio Olympics, were able to break through into the 15's squad after the Farah Palmer Cup.
So after being on the outside looking in, life has now speed right up for Sue, who received a mobile phone app from NZRFU which has her whole itinerary from the squad assembly through to training session schedules, starting in Auckland next Wednesday.
"They wanted to get me on a Tuesday afternoon flight. But I told them, 'I've got to teach fourth period'. I'm asking for an evening flight.
"I've had to urgently ask for leave. [Girls College] approved it quick."
Sue has always spoken of the support she receives from the girls in her school classes, going back to the days when they would run with her at Cooks Gardens to get fit for the NZ Sevens programme.
"They were so excited. I had to keep low key [beforehand]. For me, I've been disappointed in the past."
One of them, Year 12 student Catherine Nauga, who the younger sister of All Black Waisake Naholo, had done her entire media assignment on her favourite teacher and her accomplishments.
"I'm like, really overwhelmed a student has spent a term doing this work on me."
There could well be a bonus chapter to that report as the first Black Ferns test with Australia is the curtain raiser to the All Blacks vs Wallabies game at Eden Park on October 22.
The second test is the following Wednesday at QBE Stadium on the North Shore, before the Black Ferns depart to the United Kingdom from November 19-27 to play England, Canada (in Dublin) and Ireland.
"Playing in London, at Twickenham, and then Ireland in Dublin - it's massive," Sue said.
While a new Black Fern, Sue is a veteran international sportswoman and unlike back in the day when she was just happy to be part of the wider training groups and getting the free sponsors gear, now she is hungry to get out there after waiting for her chance for so long.
"It's the fourth Black jersey I was after. [But] you don't become capped until you step on the field."
