That intensity led to more than a few infringements, and it was Hazel Tubic that scored the first points, putting the Chiefs ahead 3-0 with a penalty from 30m out after seven minutes, when Blues prop Aleisha-Pearl Nelson failed to roll away after a tackle – the first of 14 she would muster in total thanks to some fine kicking.
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Patricia Maliepo scores the opening try for the Blues women against the Chiefs. But at the ensuing kickoff, Tubic stepped into touch while gathering the ball, and the Blues were quickly in a threatening position down the right.
Born in 2004, Brunt – a prefect at Mount Albert Grammar School – is the youngest of the lot, having just turned 17. That means she wasn’t yet alive the last time the Blues men won Super Rugby – or Super 12, as it was known back then – in May 2003. But if that makes you feel old, don’t worry, because assistant coach Anna Richards is in the same boat. “They love telling me that they weren t born when I last played, so I m not too happy about that,” she joked on Thursday, when asked about her team’s teenagers.
CHIEFS
Chiefs women s coach Chad Shepherd says their players can be pioneers for the game.
Joseph Pearson12:10, Apr 30 2021
CHIEFS
Chiefs women s coach Chad Shepherd says their players can be pioneers for the game.
La Toya Mason played 70 tests for England, three Rugby World Cup finals, winning the 2014 decider, but reckons she never reached her full potential as a player. Now back home, as Taranaki Rugby’s head of women’s rugby and with the first Chiefs women’s team as an assistant coach, the former halfback, who was born in Auckland, says she is watching the women’s game grow in ways she never could have imagined at the start of her international career in 2009.
Joseph Pearson15:33, Apr 29 2021
Michael Bradley/Getty Images
The Chiefs women gathered for their last training session at Hautapu Rugby Club on Wednesday night.
Chiefs players and coaches driving up to seven hours on a return trip for one training session demonstrates how committed they are for Super Rugby’s first women’s match. Taranaki-based Iritana Hohaia, who was named on the bench on Thursday, and Chiefs assistant coach La Toya Mason, a former England halfback of 70 tests, have been making that arduous journey to Cambridge or Hamilton for training ahead of facing the Blues in Saturday’s landmark fixture at Eden Park.
“It was a bit of a bombshell, and definitely unexpected,’’ Blackwell admitted. “It has hit everyone pretty hard. Everyone is really feeling for each other. Not just the players, but our management as well. We feel for them as well because we know of all the work that goes on behind the scenes.’’
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Eloise Blackwell leads the Probables out for the Black Ferns trial match at North Harbour Stadium last year. Blackwell had just been for a run with flatmate and Black Ferns team-mate Aleisha-Pearl Nelson in Auckland when she received an email with the bad news.