Rugby league: Centre to represent Bay in fifth code

New Edition: New Hawke's Bay women's rugby league rep Jaimee Robin is the fittest she has been for four years. Photo/Duncan Brown

It's no secret ... one can make a female Hawke's Bay representative sports team relatively easy with a bit of natural ability regardless of the code.

"I probably could have gone further in some of my other codes but I didn't do the extra work I should have because I was too lazy. I just relied on my natural ability a lot of the time because there aren't the numbers battling for berths as there are in other provinces so there isn't the same level of competition," Jaimee Robin (nee Edwards) recalled last night.

Tomorrow Robin, 29, will represent the Bay in a fifth code when she laces up to play for the Hawke's Bay women's rugby league team against Manawatu's Linton at Kirkpatrick Park, Hastings from 1pm. Hawke's Bay player-coach Chanel Huddleston said Robin, who has also represented the Bay in hockey, sevens, rugby and touch, is in the best physical conditions she has seen her in and has predicted a bright future for her in the 13-man code.

"Chanel is right. I'm the fittest I've been since I played for North Harbour in the National Hockey League four years ago. I got married in February [to Hawke's Bay artist Tamihana Robin] and before the wedding I decided to be more disciplined with my diet and lost 14kgs," Robin explained.

"I got into a fitness programme which my cousin Jackson Waerea at Patu Gym was in charge of and Faryn put me on a running programme," she said referring to her Hawke's Bay Sevens trainer Faryn Ngawaka a former Hawke's Bay Unicorns league player who is a successful triathlete these days.

"I still do my sprints. We'll find out on Sunday if I have lost any pace off the mark."

Like several of her MAC union and league teammates, Robin, has also trained alongside the MAC premier men's rugby team in recent weeks when they have been short of numbers. She said she is grateful she will be able to play both oval ball codes this winter because they are played on different days.

A dental therapist for the Hawke's Bay District Health Board, Robin, played for the MAC teams which won the Hawke's Bay women's league and union titles last year. It was her first season of league and she said she enjoyed the centre and secondrow positions but centre is her preference because that's where she played most of her union after making her NPC debut on the wing for the Tuis in 2006.

A Kiwi Ferns team berth for the World Cup later this year maybe a little unrealistic for Robin but she said it's good to have goals of that magnitude.

"I'll give everything a go. I've had a silver fern in a round ball code [the New Zealand under-18 hockey team] ... it would be good to get one in an oval ball code before I die," Robin said.

A sister of former New Zealand touch rep and Magpies winger Paratene Edwards, Robin, pointed out former Kiwi Fern Huddleston is still at the top of her game. Promising prop Awhina Tangen-Wainohu and fullback Lara Kendrick are youngsters in the Bay team fans should keep an eye on according to Robin.

"We'got a pretty good team. However with the Linton team being full of army players they will be fit so it should be a tough game," she added.

Rugby League Hawke's Bay chairman Dion Te Ahu said tomorrow's game will be the first of several for the Bay team against other Mid Central Region-based teams.

"We want to try and bring women's league back to where it once was in the Bay."

The Hawke's Bay team is: Abbey Collier, Ngahuri Thompson, Chanel Huddleston, Davina Winiata, Naadean Wainohu, Lelia-May Davis, Larissa Wainohu, Hirani Sciascia, Dayna Nuku, Awhina Tangen-Wainohu, Jaimee Robin, Selena Crouch, Jess Bennett, Kaylah Clarke-Winiata, Deidre Hakopa, Sylvia Bockman, Lara Kendrick, Bryarn Nuku, Celeste Cardie, Laurae Blake, Te Aroha Hunt, Paris Greening.