League: Pair break Bay's Kiwi Ferns drought

Hawke's Bay's first Kiwi Ferns since 2008 Chanel Huddleston, (left) and Tori Lauvao-Araia. Photo/Warren Buckland

In 2010 Hawke's Bay rugby league and union player Chanel Huddleston thought her days of pulling on the silver fern had ended.

Huddleston had just played the last of her six tournaments with the Aotearoa Maori Sevens team. "I was starting to get a bit old and I knew my chances of making the Black Ferns were becoming slimmer," she said last night.

But come November Huddleston, 31, will pull on a silver fern of a different kind, one on a New Zealand rugby league jersey, when the Kiwi Ferns take on Australia across the Tasman in a three-test series as curtainraisers to the Kiwis Four Nations tests.

The Napier Pirates backrower and MAC centre Tori Lauvao-Araia were the two Hawke's Bay players named in the Kiwi Ferns squad after shining for a Central Vipers side which caused major upsets on the way to a second placing at the national women's league tournament in Auckland last weekend.

They are the first Bay players to be named in the Kiwi Ferns since Maia Tua-Davidson and Shaan Waru helped the Kiwi Ferns thrash Australia 34-0 in the 2008 World Cup final.

Like Waru, Lauvao-Araia will be the "baby" of the team at 18.

"Nobody expected us Vipers to be a threat at nationals but we upset some big city teams on the way to the final," Huddleston said. "Not bad for a team containing players from grassroots provinces like Taranaki, Manawatu and Hawke's Bay."

The Vipers team, which included nine Bay players and was coached by former Unicorns mentor Alan Jackson, beat Auckland Invitation 42-0, Canterbury 40-12, Akarana 28-16 and Wellington 36-12 before losing 64-4 to unbeaten Counties-Manukau in the final.

"Making this team is the highlight of my sporting career," Huddleston said. "At the same time I know there's a lot of tough training ahead because there are players in the wider training group waiting to take your place if you don't perform.

"It's a pretty intense time for me. I've just taken on a coaching role with the Hawke's Bay Tuis rugby union side with the aim of getting them back into the NPC and I'm also completing my Post Graduate Primary School teaching course."

The most experienced Tui with 58 first class appearances since 2001, Huddleston will still turn out for the Tuis if required but the Kiwi Ferns will be her main sporting priority during the next six months.

Lauvao-Araia, who works with her grandmother Lupe Lauvao at Heinz Wattie's, has played league since 2009. Last month she played alongside her mother Christine in the Hawke's Bay women's team.

During her days at Flaxmere College Lauvao-Araia played volleyball, touch, netball, rugby and canoe polo.

A huge fan of Sonny Bill Williams, Lauvao-Araia, boasts deceptive pace and the ability to bust the defensive line in almost impossible situations.

She scored five tries at last weekend's nationals. The final was the only match she didn't score in.

"Considering it was my first nationals I couldn't be happier," Lauvao-Araia said.

Last night she scored two tries for Havelock North in a 34-21 win against Napier Technical in a Hawke's Bay women's club rugby match.

Huddleston, who scored one for Tech, is hoping to secure Lauvao-Araia's services for the Tuis but is likely to be out of luck.

"Rugby isn't me; I want to make the most of this Kiwi Ferns selection," Lauvao-Araia said.