Rugby: Kaikohe's Portia Woodman signs for NZ sevens squad

Portia Woodman has been in strong form for the Black Ferns Sevens side in 2018. Photo / Getty Images

Portia Woodman has received a full contract with the Black Ferns Sevens squad for 2018.

The Kaikohe flyer has proven to be an important member of the national setup after being one of their best en route to a silver medal at the Rio Olympics.

She has started the 2018 sevens circuit in fine style despite a lack of on-field success for her team. Woodman has scored tries with ease as the Black Ferns finished fifth in the series opener in Dubai before losing in the Sydney final.

Black Ferns Sevens Coach Allan Bunting said the growth in the women's game had unearthed talented athletes and that he was looking forward to working with the new players.

"We have been keeping a close eye on the development group for quite a while and watched how they performed at nationals last month.

"The players we have brought in have a lot of potential and the ability to learn and grow quickly. They will add enthusiasm to our group and have the character and work ethic that we are after," said Bunting.

"The idea of training contacts is to support these younger players to migrate into the full squad. There is a big gap between national and international level, so we are looking to give them support to get physically ready and grow their technical skill set."

Bunting said the aim was to not only grow his squad but work closely with the development programme as well.

"The plan this year is to give all of our contracted players experience on the field at some stage. Commonwealth Games and World Cup will be our top players, but we want to inject others throughout the year and have 20 players that are capable of competing for the playing 12 every tournament.

"Beyond that we really want to grow the depth, we want to see the development squad players challenging for contracts and have a good group of 30 players pushing for spots."

The squad is now preparing for April's Commonwealth Games in Australia, before three World Sevens Series tournament and the Rugby World Cup Sevens round out the season.