Horomia still making an impact

Eyes for the gap: Evelyn Horomia sets off on a run for New South Wales in the Buildcorp Super W women’s rugby competition in Australia. Horomia is the daughter of former Gisborne couple Doris Sadlier-Horomia and Alf Horomia. Picture supplied

RUGBY

AN AUSTRALIAN rugby player with strong Gisborne links continues to make an impact in the women’s game across the Tasman.

Evelyn Horomia is the starting tighthead prop for the New South Wales team in the Buildcorp Super W interstate rugby competition.

She is the daughter of former Gisborne couple Doris Sadlier-Horomia and Alf Horomia. Doris was a prominent player and coach in Gisborne netball, and Evelyn attended Mangapapa School before the family shifted to Hamilton about 20 years ago.

Evelyn played representative netball in New Zealand and at Queensland state-league level before concentrating on rugby.

She now lives in Sydney and her parents are in Brisbane.

Last year, Horomia had been named as a starter for Australia’s opening pool game, against Ireland, in the Women’s Rugby World Cup in Ireland.

However, in training she suffered a calf injury that ended her tournament before it started.

Coming back 'bigger, stronger and better'At that stage she had played two tests for the Wallaroos, and vowed to come back “bigger, stronger and better”.

This year the introduction of the interstate competition has generated renewed interest in Australian women’s rugby.

Players get to represent their states instead of their provinces.

Teams taking part are New South Wales, the Brumbies, Queensland, the Melbourne Rebels, and the Western Force.

A round-robin competition is being played, and the top two teams will play a final on the weekend starting on April 20.

The competition started on March 10 with the traditional grudge match between Queensland and New South Wales.

These teams boasted the biggest representation of Wallaroos in their line-ups. Horomia, who turns 32 in June, was one of five in the NSW team.

Playing club rugby for Parramatta and coach Rob BaumannThe game was played at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane and NSW won 18-0.

Two more wins — 32-10 against the Western Force in Sydney on March 18 and 24-5 against the Brumbies in Sydney on March 24 — have set up NSW as likely finalists.

They had a bye last week and play their final round-robin game against the Melbourne Rebels in Melbourne on Saturday.

The competition takes a break the following weekend because of the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.

Horomia was a member of the national title-winning Sydney representative team for the past two years.

Before moving to Sydney, she had two seasons with the Queensland sevens team and a year in the 15s team.

Last month, Horomia was a member of the NSW 10s team who narrowly lost to Queensland in overtime after going through pool play unbeaten.

She will play her club rugby this year with Parramatta, having left the Warringah Club that won the 2017 Sydney women’s rugby competition.

Factors that influenced Horomia’s decision to shift included the appointment of Rob Baumann as Parramatta head coach, and the reduction in travel time for training.

Baumann has been largely responsible for developing Horomia’s game.

On a practical level, Horomia will welcome a reduction in the three-hour round trip she had to undertake to get to Warringah training sessions.

It’s a busy life for Horomia. As well as training for and playing rugby to an elite level, she holds down a full-time job as a carer for the disabled.