After nearly losing both her arms, Taranaki’s Maddison Davison is now a fearless force on the rugby field. Photo / Gina Fabish
When Maddison Davison first played rugby, she wouldn’t fend off her opponents or wrap them in a tackle, terrified that her arms might snap.
Her fear wasn’t imagined. As a 3-year-old in Taranaki, Maddi was playing with her siblings on a gate, used to move cows into the milking shed, when both her arms became trapped beneath the wheels.
“It was like a train going over a track,” she recalls.
Her left arm was almost completely severed and it was only the quick thinking of her older brother Carlin, who was 6 at the time, that freed her.
Emergency surgery saved both arms, but the trauma lingered for years.
Maddi says: “When I was worried my stitches would come out if I tackled someone, I’d think, ‘Oh, wait, they’re on the inside’. Once I got over that mental barrier, I was into the game more. But it was pretty traumatic.”
Now 20, Maddi plays in the Taranaki women’s club competition and stars in No Tears On The Field, a film following female rugby players through a season. Made by director Lisa Burd, it shows players in the heartland juggling family, work and sport – something Maddi knows well. She lives on a dairy farm in Stratford with her parents, helping her dad Justin milk 210 cows, and tend to a few sheep and pigs.
Her bond with her father runs deep. He’s coached Maddi through most of her rugby career, understanding what she’s had to overcome.
Maddi says: “I had real bad nightmares until I was 15, flashbacks of the accident, which I’ve grown out of now I’ve learnt to live with what happened. But still sometimes I think, ‘What if my brother hadn’t been there to pull my arms out or the surgeon hadn’t been able to sew them back on?’ My life would have been real different.”
Nothing would have stopped Maddi from becoming an athlete, though. Growing up in a sports-mad family, the three Davison siblings would get into “backyard rumbles” after school to burn off energy. Her father coached all three from their first steps on the field, right through to 2024, when he led Maddi’s Clifton women’s side to a club title.
Her siblings are also sporting high-achievers. Elder sister Tiana plays league for the Kiwi Ferns and is a double NRLW champion, currently with the Newcastle Knights, while Carlin’s made his name in basketball, representing the Tall Blacks and the Breakers.
Maddi says she’s a little disappointed she couldn’t convince her dad to keep coaching. “I think he’s happy puttering around on the farm and just coming to watch me play. He coached us kids for about 24 seasons, so he probably deserves a break.”
The accident left lasting reminders. Maddi sometimes experiences pins and needles, and stiffening from her scars. She’s broken both wrists and her pinky fingers too.
The worst of the scarring is now covered with a tā moko enveloping her forearm, its design echoing the tattooed pattern across her dad’s back.
“I always felt a little insecure about my scars and got sick of being asked what happened,” she says. “I’d tell people I’d been bitten by a shark.”
Resilience is Maddi’s trademark. She returned to rugby after knee reconstruction surgery, which sidelined her for more than a year.
Although she’s a reluctant film star, she says the doco is important for the growth of the women’s game.
“It shows a different side to rugby,” she says. “It’s usually only the men’s game you see. Now younger girls can see we’re building something for them when they’re older.”
During filming, Maddi played for Clifton, but she’s switched to arch-rival club Southern.
“It’s funny because at the beginning of the film, you see me and my teammates Mereana [Anderson] and Phoenix [Fraser] wearing the same colours, but by the end, we’re all in different teams. But we’re still great mates.”
The Taranaki women’s rugby club season kicks off next month and Maddi’s been training since January. She has new motivation, moving from the back of the scrum to the front row.
“I feel like I’m more involved in the game, getting into the rucks as a prop,” she says. “With new coaches, I’ve had to go out and prove my worth, and I’ve been rewarded with a starting position every week.”
Her short-term goal is to reach a milestone 25 games for Southern, then progress to the Taranaki Whio senior side, then eventually the Super Rugby Aupiki competition. Her big dream is to play for the Black Ferns – wearing the silver fern like her sister and brother.
Maddi says: “It’d take a big push, but if that’s what it takes, I’ll do it.”
No Tears On The Field opens in cinemas on Thursday.