NRLWahine Spotlight: Stacey Waaka & The Black Fern Broncos
As Aotearoa finished the Paris Olympics with a bunch of gold medals, Stacey Waaka was already lining up for her NRLW debut with Brisbane Broncos having won a gold medal to start the Olympics. Broncos started this season with two losses and it wasn't just Waaka stepping into the Broncos team as her former Black Ferns Sevens homie Gayle Broughton and former Black Fern Tafito Lafaele also played their first games of the campaign in a 44-4 win for Broncos over Gold Coast Titans.
Broncos had six NRLWahine in the team that grabbed their first win of the season and Kiwi Fern Jasmine Fogavini was the only one who hadn't played Super Rugby Aupiki or higher in Aotearoa. Waaka and Broughton joined Lavinia Gould as former Black Ferns Sevens players in the Broncos team, with 41-year-old Gould making her Sevens debut at 17-years-old. Lafaele played for Black Ferns before switching to NRLW and Mele Hufanga was too good for Black Ferns.
Gould, Fogavini and Hufanga have now represented Kiwi Ferns with Fogavini and Hufanga playing in the Kiwi Ferns win over Australia last year. Broughton has been battling injury and wasn't available for the international Tests last year, with Lafaele and Waaka both capable of earning Kiwi Ferns selection if they want to pursue that.
Waaka played all 70 minutes in the big win over Titans and an impressive linebreak boosted her mahi:
11 runs - 146m @ 13.2m/run, 1 linebreak, 7 tackle breaks, 4 tackles @ 100%
In her first game of rugby league, Waaka had a simple role on the wing as her main role was to run the footy. Waaka didn't wander too far away from her wing aside from the big linebreak and it was lovely to see how deliberate Waaka was in rolling out perfect 'play the ball' technique.
Broncos coach Scott Prince will build out Waaka's influence across this season of NRLW footy. The excellence of her NRLWahine Broncos is covered in our newsletter as Hufanga scored four tries in this win and continues to dominate NRLW, while Broughton also showed her potential in rugby league with nifty play-making.
Hufanga and Broughton were playing on the other side of the field to Waaka, with left winger Julia Robinson also busy on that edge. Broncos have ample strike power on their left edge which helped absorbed the easing in process of Waaka on the right edge and it will be fun to track how coach Prince develops attacking shapes moving out to Waaka.
Waaka showed that her speed, power and footwork translates nicely to rugby league. She also had 25 kick return metres which was the most of the Broncos outside backs and her ability to make metres early in sets will be a boost for Broncos. Waaka will have plenty of opportunities to develop her finishing in the corner and her combination with Ali Brigginshaw, who does most of the kicking for Broncos on the right edge, could see Waaka showcase her aerial skills as well.
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