"Current Kiwi Ferns or Australian Jillaroos aren't eligible for next week's match. Five of our girls almost made the Kiwi Ferns and five of us are former Kiwi Ferns. We know nothing about the composition of our opposing team so it will be a different challenge," Huddleston explained.
"We've had some good training camps. It's a typical Maori campaign ... all about whanaungatanga, enhancing a positive culture and the willingness to play for each other," Huddleston, the second oldest in the team and sole Bay player, said.
The New Zealand Maori tour party leaves on Sunday and will spend a week at the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence in Sydney.
Although she is retiring from international play Huddleston will continue to play for the Central Vipers - the Hawke's Bay team she is the player-coach of -at the national tournament, as well as club league for Bridge Pa, the Hawke's Bay women's champions, and club rugby for MAC.
"I'm confident it will only be a matter of time before a Hawke's Bay women's team will be good enough to play at the nationals. We would have a team good enough to go this year but New Zealand Rugby League criteria states we must go as part of the Vipers like we did last year when we finished third with six Bay players in the team," Huddleston said.
She believed three Bay players, 2014 Kiwi Ferns centre Tori Lauvao-Araia, secondrower Denise Aiolupotea and backrower Te Aroha Hunt, were good enough to earn NRL contracts in the near future.
"If we get a fulltime women's development officer here in the Bay I have no doubt Hawke's Bay will supply players to the new NRL comp on a regular basis," Huddleston said.
A former Hawke's Bay Tuis rugby coach and player, Huddleston still holds the record for the most first-class appearances for the team with 64 from 2001-14.
Although she has ruled out a return to playing for the Tuis, Huddleston said she would consider coaching the Tuis if the opportunity arose.
An Aotearoa Maori Sevens rep from 2005-11, Huddleston played in three Hong Kong Sevens tournaments as well as tournaments in England, Italy, Australia and the United States. She ranked those tournaments, along with her Kiwi Ferns stints, as the highlights of her playing career.
No prizes for guessing the lowest point ... the 14-month suspension she received after successfully appealing an 18-month one for physical and verbal abuse of a referee during a Hawke's Bay women's club rugby game in 2015.
"It took me a while to recover from that. Because league recognises union's suspensions and vice versa that cost me a spot in the 2016 Nines ... I had to start from the bottom again."
Huddleston pointed out a mural of multiple world and Olympic shot put champion Valerie Adams at her school proved inspirational to her in recent times.
"The mural is accompanied by the word perseverance, one of the six qualities our Henry Hill School principal Jason Williams encourages. Valerie visited our school soon after the mural was completed and was so inspiring to all of us."
No doubt Huddleston will have a wander passed the mural this afternoon as she prepares for her final outing in an international jersey.
