Maarire Puketapu enjoys family support at her Warriors NRLW debut against Sydney Roosters. Photo: Mark Kolbe/www.photosport.nz
Maarire Puketapu can probably thank the Covid pandemic for diverting her sporting career towards the NZ Warriors NRLW programme.
As a teenager, she represented New Zealand as a softball centrefielder and even had a US college scholarship lined up at Division II Florida Tech.
"I played softball my entire life and was supposed to head over to America on a two-year scholarship, but unfortunately, because of Covid, I wasn't too keen on heading over there.
"I didn't think softball was going to be the sport for me."
Ironically, the very phenomenon that forced the Warriors women's team into a five-year hiatus was also the thing that steered Puketapu down that sporting pathway.
In 2021, while visiting relatives in Queensland, she played a game for the local Kawana Dolphins, whose coach invited her to move back for the entire season.
The following year, she chalked up air miles back and forth across the Tasman, sharing time between her Te Aroha Eels club and Wellington reps, and Kawana in Queensland.
Last year, Puketapu secured a fulltime spot at Sunshine Coast Falcons in the second-tier Queensland BMD Premiership, where she popped up on the radar of new Warriors coach Ron Griffiths.
"After some time, I got the big phone call and I was in shock," she said. "I hung up and screamed, 'F**k, I'm going to be a Warrior!', but I was at work, so I had to tone it down real quick."
While the nuggety second-rower began this season with zero NRLW experience, her efforts at the next level down at least put her ahead of those arriving from local clubs or other codes.
"Coming from BMD, I was only in that competition for one year, so I only got a small taste of how the competition can be," Puketapu said. "Taking that next step up to NRLW was pretty massive.
"I knew it was going to be hard, so before I came here, I just trained as hard as I could to the standard I thought would be similar to NRLW. I was training with our local boys team in Australia, hoping to up my skills and fitness.
"Obviously, I still died in pre-season, because that's what it's all about, but if I hadn't had that training prior, I wouldn't have been as good or I would have had injuries."
During her stay with the Warriors, she has been housed with sevens superstar Michaela Brake and former Black Fern Shakira Baker, who are both still feeling their way into rugby league and admit to picking their flatmate's brain.
That education cuts both ways.
"Honestly, it's been a big learning curve for me and I've added so much to my basket since being here," Puketapu said.
"I'm learning so much from our Black Fern girls and grateful to be living with two of them, so every day, I'm learning and growing as a player and a person."
"The biggest thing I've learnt is coming across the professional girls and seeing them on TV all my life... we're all on the same level. They didn't give off this energy that they're too cool or too good for us - you really do feel like you're part of the whānau here."
Puketapu doesn't lack for whānau of her own, many of whom made the trip across the ditch to witness her NRLW debut against Sydney Roosters.
"Running out of the tunnel and seeing my family there is a feeling you can't really describe."
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