Mystics netballer among Ignite7 sevens squad

The 96 players named to take part in the second Red Bull Ignite7 event features a number of up and coming rugby stars, and a host of athletes from other sports looking for a new challenge.

Among them is Northern Mystics netball squad member Grace Kukutai.

The Waikato Tainui mid-courter became a full squad member for this season’s ANZ Premiership season, but next month she’ll be taking her place in the Surge women’s team.

She’s excited by the new challenge that awaits her in four weeks, “just need a little bit of change in my life,” she said at today’s launch in Auckland, “and then sevens works out perfectly in the off-season for netball so I just thought [I’d] have a little bit of a refresh, try something new, see where it goes and if not, netball is still there. It will always still be there.”

Kukutai has been quietly preparing herself for her first foray into rugby with the Auckland rugby system, “just learning the basic skills, tackle technique, making sure that I'm all safe and ready to go. It's a massive challenge and very different to netball, but yeah, nah I'm really excited.”

Kukutai isn’t the first netballer to try her hand at sevens, Portia Woodman also played for the Mystics before making the switch in 2012, and more recently Kukutai’s team mate Mererangi Paul took part in the inaugural Ignite7 event last year.

While Woodman has set the rugby world alight, Kukutai is careful not to raise any expectations of a similar outcome for her, “it is a really big step for me, so at the moment I'm just trying to enjoy myself, learn, see where I go but yeah if an opportunity presents itself, you never know.”

As well as Kukutai, the 96 players will see 2019 Bay of Plenty and Coromandel Surf Life Saving’s Alicia Wilson, and Under 21 New Zealand women’s hockey representative Kiriana Wairau-Hunter participate in the women’s squads, while NZ Youth Water Polo player Ronan Gogarty-Watson, World Rowing Championship silver medalist Ben Taylor, and national sprint sensation Edward Osei-Nketia feature in the men’s squads.

NZR High-Performance Sevens Talent Development Manager, Chad Tuoro is excited by the diverse sporting backgrounds on show. He believes the nature of the Ignite7s allows for the curious to test their skills where they otherwise couldn’t fit in club rugby sevens to their normal routine.

“This opportunity is a four day commitment for them to go 'well, what's four days out of my whole year with my sport' to give something that they met, you know really want to give a crack cause they've seen it or they might have played it in their earlier years and so yeah look it's pleasing to provide the opportunity."

The 4 women’s team’s also feature a number of the U18 Women’s Sevens team that claimed gold at the Youth Olympics in Argentina in 2018, including Iritana Hohaia, Kalyn Takitimu-Cook, Mahina Paul, Jazmin Hotham and Montessa Tairakena. Paul, Hotham and Tairakena have since secured full-time contracts with the Black Ferns Sevens team, with Tairakena making her World Series Sevens debut earlier this month in Colorado.

Takitimu-Cook and Mererangi Paul were two of the three top women’s players of the tournament last year the other being Isla Norman-Bell. William Warbrick, Chay Fihaki and Jacob Kneepkens were the three male MVPs.

17-year-old Kneepkens, who still has a few weeks left of school at New Plymouth’s Francis Douglas Memorial College, yesterday signed a contract with the All Blacks Sevens squad for 2020. He says the opportunities provided to him through the Ignite7 program has helped him got there so quickly, “[it’s] a perfect opportunity to sort of get your foot in the door for selectors.”

More than 500 people applied for selection, Tuoro, says it’s a testament to the success of the inaugural event as well as the growing popularity of sevens.

“Now in year two, we’re again blown away by the response and by the calibre and diverse sporting backgrounds of the athletes who have thrown their hat in the ring.

“It definitely made for a tough job for our selectors.”

The four-day-long event sees the players train under the national coaches, and put through a series of tests that are akin to the combines in the USA. Tuoro says it gives him and his team, as well as national selectors the chance to “confirm talent” not only on the playing field. While the one-day tournament allows the 96 players to showcase their on-field talent, the three days prior are just as important.

Tuoro says, “Off-field they’re being watched. We’re getting feedback about them as a person because indicators tell us if they’re mature, if they’re really good I guess professional habits to start with then that’s going to enable them to try and transfer quickly into the high-performance space.”

Red Bull Ignite7 2019 will take place from 20-23 November at Trusts Stadium, Henderson.

The squads are: