A team by any other name would be incomplete
How to come together while remembering where you came from.
I have played women’s club rugby in Wellington for decades and in that time, have run out for three clubs. My first was Johnsonville, where I played for eight seasons before we’d had enough of the sexism and packed up shop to move to Wainuiomata. I played there until we dissolved due to similar tension regarding proper support and recognition of our two time club championship team.
In 2020, Wainuiomata didn’t have a team so I begrudgingly headed over the hill for Petone. In 2021, Wainuiomata reassembled but I had already given my word to our head coach at Petone. I returned home to Wainuiomata in 2022 and am pleased to say our club has grown up a lot.
The club has grown but our player base is still getting there. The team of the 2010s is now scattered around the clubs across the Hutt Valley or have retired. We have a wave of young talent coming through but it needs to be properly supported to reach its full potential. Which is why us old girls have chucked out oar in this season.
From left to right: Seka, Mac, Gail, me and Sisi celebrating receiving our 100 game blazers (Jean couldn’t make this evening so was presented hers separately).
Jean Oti stepped up as our head coach with Mary-Ann Collins (better known as Mac and I’m embarrassed to tell you how long it took me to figure out that that was because of her initials.) and me as her assistants. We went through a pre-season all too familiar to those in rugby, with unpredictable numbers turning up at each session.
Last season, we struggled through with the same thing. On the verge of being kicked out by the union from the competition, it took until the second round for us to have a regular 15. Is that any wonder that that uptick in participation coincides with the split in divisions? As a club currently developing, unsurprisingly the players prefer to play those in the same boat but that’s a whole other rant for another day!
We looked at our numbers and decided we didn’t want to muddle through. Besides, this time there was another option and that was to join forces with another club over the hill. As a group of old girls, looking to develop the game, we couldn’t be the reason that the club competition participation numbers dropped even further so we held a meeting and got our players blessing to explore it.
This wasn’t the first time our club had done this. When I returned from England, I found our team had linked up with Avalon, who were also in a period of rebuild, in order to field a team. What was unique about this season wasn’t that two team came together, more often than not, new teams are made from parts of old ones. No, what was unique was that we came together but held on to our own identities.
I am pleased to say that in the last five years, there has been a shift in the way we recognise the contribution of our long serving players. More and more often we see blazers being awarded for anywhere between 30-100 games played, depending on the club. Heck, I even remember Paremata-Plimmerton flipping the honours systems on it’s head a few years ago and handing out blazers to all their players in year one to recognise their participation in the clubs rebuild.
It’s getting better but it doesn’t mean it’s getting easier. I personally think the 100 game benchmark at my club is too high for a season now made up of around 10 games. In our first combined session this year, we asked the players how many were mums and 50% put up their hands. Recovery from childbirth is usually at least a season.
So clubs grow and fold as players live their lives and those most committed are the ones that have no choice but to move to keep playing the game they love. And when they do, that blazer counter restarts at zero.
It was this reason, more than any other, that saw us keep both names in our season with Avalon and why we have done the same this year in our season with Hutt Old Boys Marist.
The teamsheet our manager Seka (aka Eseta) put together to recognise our Old Timers Day this year which just so happened to fall on the same day for both of our clubs.
That’s a whole lot of preamble but how does it work in practice when you pull two teams together?
First, we spoke to the players we currently had. We proposed the idea and asked what would be their concerns if we were to come together, what parts were negotiable and what they needed us to hold on to.
With their blessing we then had to talk to our club committee. Ours at Wainui was pretty easy as we had been through it before. HOBM had to get their heads around it and we were concerned that the predominately male board might get hung up on their own club rivalries. Thankfully, we needn’t have worried and both signed off on the merge.
The clubs then communicated this with the union and they figured out registrations etc. would work. Thankfully I had nothing to do with these convos (thanks team!).
Green light from the clubs, we then met at a management and coaching team. We were fortunate in this regard as HOBM’s coach had been overcommitted and so was happy to hand over the reigns to our coaching team. We just merged our management to ensure both could organise the playing bases. We registered players under their clubs of origin and so there were subs that needed paying.
We are lucky in the Wellington Region that a number of clubs are neighbours so no one was having to travel too far. We committed to training one night in Wainui and one night at the HOBM grounds. This has worked out well cause to be honest, Wainui has the better indoor space and HOBM the better outdoor one for team runs.
Our first training together was only two weeks out from season kick off and rhe same week as our grading game. Ahhhh! Despite this, we still prioritised connection and our first training together focused on fun and getting to know each other. This was the best thing we could have done as it set the tone for the rest of the season.
In terms of game day, we basically just alternated strips week on week. So that one week we play in the Wainuiomata green and black and then the following, HOBM’s green, red and white. We also alternated home games, playing at both Hutt Rec and William Jones this season.
When it comes to club events, all players, regardless of club of origin, show face at both. As I mentioned, we had the Old Timers day on the same day this year but as a team, spent time in both spaces.
What’s been the outcome of this? Well, the most basic one is that a bunch of players were able to get our on the field this year. Had either club folded this season, who knows who would have decided to move to play or to simply give it a miss.
The beautiful thing as been that we have actually had 12+ players now play their first ever game of women’s rugby this season. So yes we brought together two old parts but also made space for something new.
And most importantly to me, we helped long serving players get their moment in the sun. Some players may be lucky or talented enough to play for their country but none of them would get there without players like these to keep the first step of the ladder intact. Lina Tavite-Time, Epenesa Galuefa and Bertha Sifa all ran out for their blazer game a couple of weeks ago. They have been playing since 2015 to get to this moment. They are going to be joined by more players this coming weekend.
From left to right: Bertha Sifa, Lina Tavite-Time and Epenesa Galuefa after their blazer match.
As we head into round 2, no matter the outcome, this season has already been a success. We came together to grow the game and we’ve smashed that. We might have come from different clubs but we all play for the same reason. We just bloody love our rugby.
With you,
Alice