Tasman rugby women in play for 2016 Olympics selection
Potential Olympic selection will be part of the motivation for 52 players at the Go4Gold sevens trial camp at Trafalgar Park on Monday.
The event, staged by the Tasman Rugby Union, is one of 14 camps being held around the country in a bid to uncover potential candidates for a New Zealand women's sevens team to contest the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Tasman rugby operations manager Mike Kerrisk, who is also a New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) sevens resource coach, said he was delighted by the local response to Monday's camp.
"It's been a lot easier than I thought and across the country the response has been really high," he said.
"For example, in the Canterbury province last week, they had over 120 registrations and every province is relative.
"For a province the size of Tasman, we've currently generated 52 registrations.
"We'd earmarked a number somewhere around 40, so any number over and above that, I personally considered a real bonus."
The purpose of the camps is to uncover any potential talent unknown to the national selection hierarchy. It is an opportunity for players in every province to show their skills.
"There's no doubt that there will be, I guess, a smattering of current Black Ferns throughout some of the initial squads, but [the NZRU] really wants to regenerate some women's rugby players," Kerrisk said.
"Not only will some of these girls do incredibly well in sevens and from there, perhaps, go all the way [to the Olympics] in four years time," he said.
"Not only that, if we see them getting to a certain point in sevens, the goal is to encourage them to stay in the code and move into that 10s or 15s game."
Monday's camp starts at 5.30pm at Trafalgar Park.
Initially, each player's statistics will be put into a database.
There will then be various skills sessions for the players, covering speed, skill, endurance and character tests, followed by a game of touch.
"We're not only looking for those basic rugby or ball skills, we're looking for good communication skills and good leadership skills as well," Kerrisk said.
Promising players will be recalled for an advanced skills camp the following Sunday, when NZRU officials will be present.
