Photo credit - Andy McArthur

Story courtesy of College Sport Media

Over the past decade, St Mary’s College has forged a proud record of team success on the rugby field and has produced several individuals to have gained New Zealand honours in Women’s 7s and 15s rugby.

The school has won the national schools 7s and 15s titles once each and has been consistently amongst the leading New Zealand schoolgirls rugby schools every other year. Currently, former students Monica Tagoai, Justine McGregor and Dhys Faleafaga are in the New Zealand women’s rugby set-ups and Tagoai played for the Black Ferns in their most recent test last month against Australia.

This year’s group of players are hungry for success and with these former students as role models to look up to their commitment is high.

The Wellington Women’s Pride team kicks off their 2024 NPC Farah Palmer Cup competition this Saturday against Tasman at Porirua Park and St Mary’s player Litia Bulicakau is one of the young players in the 29-player squad who is set for a WNPC debut season over the next several weeks. 

College Sport Wellington caught up with Litia Bulicakau earlier this week ahead of the start of a busy stretch of rugby, which also includes training and playing for St Mary’s College.

Litia is primarily training at halfback in the Pride squad but can fill multiple positions. “I am a utility fullback and halfback for the Pride, but for my school team I play first five-eighth and for my club I play fullback,” she explained.

Litia has spent her second season playing club rugby for Petone this year, where she played 10 matches, which included seven starts at fullback, one at halfback and two injections off the bench. She stood out in several matches for her pace, flair and calm head under pressure for the Ponies in club rugby.

Petone won the first round Rebecca Luia’ana Trophy and drew 24-24 with Ories in the second round Tia Paasi Cup final but still took home the title because they scored more tries in the game, following a stalemate in extra time.

Litia enjoyed playing for Petone, not just because of the results and the silverware that they won. “I was really proud of the team this year, and enjoyed playing with new players including three from Marist St Pat’s who didn't field a team this year and two players from Canada.”

“The highlight of the year was the overall bond I made with my teammates,” said Litia, “I felt like I connected with my team more this year than in my first season and in turn that gave me my confidence to play well.”

Litia played for the Wellington Development and Wellington U18s teams in 2023 and was hoping to make the Pride this year but was optimistic but never confident of gaining the selection nod when it came from coach Fusi Feaunati.

A common denominator for Litia and other school contemporaries is coach Shannon Nightingale, who coaches both the St Mary’s and Petone teams.

St Mary’s are fielding a youthful side this year. “I think the biggest challenge for our team this year is that most of our girls are under 15. So it will be a good challenge for us to test their skills on the field.”

This year there are five year 13 players and about half the squad is U15.

This will be Litia’s third year in the St Mary’s First XV and says it’s exciting helping these young players coming through. Litia herself set her marker down as a player for the future in her first year in 2022 with several electric performances including scoring four tries in one match for St Mary’s against Feilding High School.

St Mary’s is currently playing in the Wellington Schoolgirls Premier 1 competition on Wednesday afternoons. The final of this competition is next Wednesday night (14 August).

In the recent school holidays, they hosted Christchurch Girls’ High School at the Petone Rec. CGHS have been National Top 4 representatives in recent years and some of their ex-players have moved on to higher honours, such as Black Ferns 7s gold medallist Jorja Miller.

“It was a really good challenge for us as a team, as we had just started training two weeks prior. CGHS put up a good challenge for us, but we managed to connect well. It was close early on, but we pulled away in the second half and won well.”

The big challenge again this year will likely be Palmerston North’s national champions Manukura, who have beaten St Mary’s in each of the past three Hurricanes region finals for the Rex Kerr Cup and the final before that in 2020 it was a 10-10 draw.

First St Mary’s are scheduled to play Hastings Girls’ High School the following Wednesday in their semi-final and then if they win that it will be against Manukura if they beat Feilding High School in the other semi-final. Should St Mary’s make it through, they will host the final on Wednesday 28 August in Wellington. The winner of that match will play in the Top 4 tournament in Palmerston North over Winter Tournament Week.

Also coming up is the annual Hurricanes Girls U15 tournament in Levin over Winter Tournament Week, which Litia first played in when she moved to St Mary’s from Mana College.

Following on, there is the sevens season throughout October and beyond, with the Hurricanes Youth Rugby Council Sevens Tournament scheduled on 19 October and the Wellington Condors Qualifiers on 28 October. There is also the annual Sir Gordon Tietjens college tournament in Palmerston North in October which Litia was Player of the Tournament in last year.

Litia has Fijian heritage and moved to New Zealand and to Porirua with her family in 2013, aged five. She spent years 9 and 10 at Mana College but moved to St Mary’s for the opportunity of developing her rugby, which she started playing in year nine at Mana College.

She doesn’t have a big family rugby background – in fact she is the only one of her siblings that plays. “I have a brother and two sisters, but they are more academically minded. My older sister works in nursing, my older brother is in dentistry and my younger sister is in school with me at St Mary’s and doesn’t really play either.”

If she gets to make her debut for the Pride either this weekend or in the two round-robin games that follow against Manawatu and North Harbour she will have a big contingent of local family and friends in support at Jerry Collins Stadium

The Wellington Pride’s FPC season is:

10 August: Home vs Tasman (Porirua Park, kick-off 12.05pm)17 August: Away vs Taranaki25 August: Home vs Manawatu (Porirua Park)1 September: Home v North Harbour (Porirua Park)7 September: Away vs Otago

Article added: Thursday 08 August 2024