New sevens rugby star Sarah Goss returned to the shearing board to beat some of the best female shearers in an invitation charity event at the 53rd Golden Shears in Masterton.
Formerly a top lower grades shearer, who was third in the intermediate final at the Golden Shears lastyear and runner-up at the New Zealand Championships a few weeks later in Te Kuiti, Goss hadn't shorn a sheep this year as she concentrates on a blossoming rugby career, which saw her make New Zealand women's sevens vice-captain at the age of 20.
This is her first season in the national team and she is targeting a place at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
University studies had also contributed greatly towards Goss going into the charity event with no practice sessions behind her.
"I haven't touched a handpiece for about three months ... I was so nervous," she said after the event, which was a both a promotion and fundraiser for cancer research and a tribute to six-times Golden Shears woolhandling champion Joanne Kumeroa, who was diagnosed with cervical cancer last August.
Goss, who went to top co-ed rugby school Feilding High School and is from a Kimbolton farm run by dad and 1985 Golden Shears intermediate shearing champion Alan and mum and 2008 open woolhandling winner Ronnie, will be straight back into the rugby, for a team get-together this week ahead of a tournament in China and the World Cup in Moscow in June.
