Rugby: Women deserve big stage, says coach

Bay of Plenty women's rugby team player Sorrento Bockman-Rurehe tries to break a tackle during an invitational tournament last weekend.

Rotorua's Charlie Hurihanganui is dreaming big after watching the Bay of Plenty women's rugby team fire this season.

While the Steamers have struggled for results this year the women's and secondary schoolgirls' teams have dominated.

The Bay of Plenty women's team won a national invitational tournament in Hamilton last weekend, defeating Auckland Samoa in the final 44-0.

Co-coach Hurihanganui, who shares duties with Pere Paul, said the tournament was the equivalent of the second division in New Zealand.

He said they now deserved a shot at the first division.

"Our intentions are that we want to go forward and have a women's provincial championship side in the first division," he said.

Bay of Plenty has not featured a team in the Women's National Provincial Championship since the early 2000s, according to Hurihanganui.

"We believe we have the talent here and the goods to do that. We have always had the talent here and it is a matter of nurturing it and coaching it the right way."

The senior team includes 12 players from the successful Bay of Plenty secondary schoolgirls' rugby team who won the Northern Region competition earlier this year, beating teams like Auckland.

"If we don't have a first division side we will lose players to the likes of Waikato," he said.

Hurihanganui said players were already making the switch to other provinces to play in the top grade.

A New Zealand Rugby Union spokesperson said for a province to put a side into the top grade they needed the support of their union.

Bay of Plenty Rugby Union chief executive Mike Rogers said the union was rapt with the performance of its schoolgirl and women's teams this year.

However, he said it needed to take "a deep breath" before racing into a decision like entering a team into the top grade of women's rugby.

Rogers said the next step was to do a review and see how many players in the women's side would still be here next year.

"A lot of our school leavers in the region leave to go to university," he said.

It was also a big cost to support a side in the top division.

"It is a consideration," he said. "But we need to identify how many of those players will be here next year."

Rogers said the priority at this stage was simply to continue strengthening the Baywide women's senior competition and the secondary schools competition.

Rogers said the union was looking at getting a women's sevens team into the national sevens tournament held in Rotorua in January.

Hurihanganui said standout performers at last weekend's tournament included Animei Skudder (Mt Maunganui), Ngarangi Ruri-Te Rupe (Opotiki), Natalie Delamere (Rotorua), Gemma Pearson (Mt Maunganui), Takiri Butler (M t Maunganui), Noi Kurei (Opotiki), and Stacey Waaka (Whakatane).