Selica Winiata....the Black Ferns magician will be a key factor against Australia. Photo / Photosport
Selica Winiata was just 13 when she got the first call from a senior rugby coach. So off she went, into the unknown.
"I didn't know much at all about women's rugby," she says at the Black Ferns' temporary headquarters, an apartment complex in Mt Maunganui, before heading to Sydney this week.
"I got this phone call to play in a Manawatu trial. They must have seen me somewhere but I don't even know where.
"It could have been anywhere — I was playing basketball, touch, netball, rugby, cricket, tennis, soccer at the time.
"I turned up for the trial and saw these huge women, and thought I must have come to the wrong place."
Winiata stayed and played her first representative game at 14, something she says would not be allowed these days. Nearly two decades later, women's rugby still looks huge compared with the 31-year-old, the ultimate pocket rocket who weighs well under 60kg.
Winiata is a heavyweight of the women's game, though, a try-scoring fullback for the Black Ferns XVs since 2008. She will be a key performer in a Black Ferns side featuring five debutants against Australia tonight in the Bledisloe Cup double-header.
But whereas the All Blacks are deep into the professional age, the women test players still fit sport into life, albeit with new part-time contracts.
"If the opportunity was there to become a fully professional rugby player, I would take it with two hands," says Winiata, who will be playing her 32nd test.
"It would definitely take away the stress of trying to balance rugby and work, but at the same time, that's all we've ever known. We are used to living busy lives, juggling things around, making it work."
And juggle, she sure does.
Winiata is a frontline police constable in Palmerston North, working a 40-hour week, day shifts, Monday to Friday. It's a full-on career dealing with everything from deaths and major car crashes to drink drivers, assaults and shoplifting, etc.
And Winiata's life took a major shift three years ago when she became the primary caregiver for two nephews, Kupa (now aged six) and Korbyn (four).
Winiata lives with her parents, Peti, a nail technician, and Andrew, who is in the trucking industry, and they support Selica in looking after the boys. It makes for a hectic life, with Winiata training before and after work five days a week.
Kupa and Korbyn are very much a part of her rugby career, travelling with Peti and Andrew to Ireland for the 2017 World Cup, where the Black Ferns beat England in the final.
Any effect on her rugby career was irrelevant as she considered becoming a new and instant parent to two small boys.
"My first thought was what I needed to do for the boys — rugby at that point didn't cross my mind," she says, without giving details about why the boys came under her care.
"It was a case of planning how a day looked, how a week looked. If I'm not here, what do the boys do?
"But my parents and I are pretty tight. They've been so supportive of me since day one, which is why I am still even playing rugby.
"They are the backbone of who I am, and it has worked out well so far with the boys because when I am away, my parents are there.
"Day to day, I will drop them off at school and day care, then go to work. The boys come to some of my gym sessions and there is a corner where they can sit with their books, colouring in, watching a movie on the iPad. We always make it work."
Which is not to say there wasn't a bit of a shock to the system.
"Time you had spare before is no longer there," she says. "Would I change it? No way. I love it. It means you are busy all the time but I get huge satisfaction seeing what they can achieve. They have become a huge part of my life.
"And I hope they always remember the trip to Ireland. They still talk about it now, which is a pretty cool feeling for me, and something no one can take away from them."
This role may have played a part in Winiata being overlooked for a full-time sevens contract, having also been a shock exclusion from the 2016 Olympic team.
While new coach Allan Bunting said she paid the price for attacking too much, one insider told the Herald Winiata's reluctance to join the full-time sevens squad in Mt Maunganui was the issue.
And Winiata's primary reason for staying in Palmerston North? Her nephews' best interests, rather than her police career.
Winiata's Black Ferns XV position is still secure, and she is playing a key part as the profile and professionalism in women's rugby leaps forward.
"With these part-time contracts, players are accountable to turn up to gym sessions, the physio, the doctor, skills sessions," she says.
"In the past, it was left up to the individual to tick all the boxes.
"There is also a lot more sports science behind our trainings. The GPS units were introduced in 2013, and around 2015, they really started using the data. It is now a huge part of how the Black Ferns prepare.
"We want to train at times with the same intensity you play test matches, although the data also allows coaches to alter trainings if our bodies are starting to feel it."
Despite the advances and increased opportunities in the game, one of her major messages to young players is to consider what lies beyond rugby.
As she found with her heartbreaking axing from the sevens squad, hopes and dreams can be quickly snatched away.
Her major aim now is to make the 2021 World Cup, which New Zealand is bidding to host.
But Winiata is also feeling out opportunities beyond her playing career by working as a regular analyst on Sky TV, something she enjoys.
And being denied a full-time sevens contract simply inspired her to take up refereeing with the aim of one day controlling men's Super Rugby games, a potentially historic move.
Referees boss Bryce Lawrence invited Winiata to a recent national camp. She is already refereeing high school games, readying herself for the club and Heartland levels.
Such an evolving rugby career was unimaginable for past generations of women, and a legendary figure will be noting Winiata's ground-breaking ambitions with special pride.
The Manawatu team Winiata first joined included former Black Ferns captain Farah Palmer, whose many accomplishments include being the first female on the New Zealand Rugby board.
"She is a humble, ordinary person, who always gave you the time of day," says Winiata.
"I learnt so much from her. She was a real hard trainer, never any short cuts.
"She was Maori, had graduated from university, had become a doctor, and I guess I had grown up hearing negative stereotypes [about Maori].
"I learnt from her to be true to yourself, don't be ashamed of who you are. I thought, wow, I just want to be like her.
"Quite a few women referee in the Farah Palmer Cup but I want to go beyond that.
"It will depend on how well I referee, there will be a lot of stepping stones, but I'm prepared for all of that.
"Women still play because we have a passion for the game, and I'd love to find ways such as refereeing to give back to the game."
She aims to start a family after the Rugby World Cup in England.