YOUTH Olympic Games selection is on the line for the New Zealand women’s under-18 sevens team this weekend.
The squad, which includes Opotiki’s Tynealle Fitzgerald, flies to Sydney today ahead of the inaugural Oceania Rugby Under-18 Sevens Championship this weekend.
The winner of the tournament will earn a place at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in October.
The two-day tournament begins on Saturday and will be held at St Ignatius College. New Zealand will play Australia and Fiji twice each before a final. Winning the tournament is the only path to the games.
Speaking to the Opotiki News yesterday, New Zealand coach Victoria Grant said the team had put the hard yards in.
“We are feeling really good about the tournament. The team is looking fit and they have done the work.
“We have done double trainings every day and they have coped with that really well.
“We don’t talk too much about the pressures of winning the tournament. We have just talked about being the best we can be as a collective and working hard every day to get better.”
Grant said Fitzgerald brought a lot to the team.
“Tynealle’s biggest strength is her work ethic and never-say-die attitude.
“She is one of hardest workers in the team. She is good at hunting the ball and on defence.
She is a really physical player.”
Grant said the team had a good balance and they would be looking to use all of the weapons they had.
“We have a lot of strike power across the park; we have good playmakers in the middle as well as power and speed in the forwards.
“Our strength is that we are not relying on one thing in particular.
The team also includes Black Ferns Sevens players Risi Pouri-Lane and Jazmin Hotham. Pouri-Lane was a member of the gold-medal-winning Commonwealth Games team.
Grant, who also coaches the Bay of Plenty team, said it made it easier already knowing the players.
“Coaching is all about the relationships with players. The girls were buzzing out about the Commonwealth Games medal. Risi and Jazmin bring that intent and focus in how they train. The other girls see that and that lifts them too.”