One of the NRLW\u2019s breakout forwards over the past 18 months, Butler earns her maiden Blues jersey after a stellar past 18 months, which has seen her take her game to new heights and represent Australia at the back end of last year.<\/p>\n
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A fan-favourite at the Roosters, she has now been given the opportunity to live out her lifelong dream and follow in the footsteps of cousin Harata Butler, who played for New South Wales in 2014.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m honestly still pinching myself now. I always get told I\u2019m a bit of a yapper. I love to talk, and when Strange gave me the call-up, I was literally speechless,\u201d Butler said in the lead-up to Thursday\u2019s match in Brisbane.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was about to cry. I was trying to signal to my mum that it\u2019s the call.<\/p>\n
Rima Butler.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going crazy on the phone, and I\u2019m trying to keep my cool because he\u2019s trying to tell me (that I made the team).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so surreal and super excited to wear the jersey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Working under John Strange at the Roosters and now New South Wales, Butler credited him for pushing her to the limits to become the best player she can be.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to give a lot of credit to Strangey because he made me the player that I am today and he really worked on me,\u201d Butler said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve obviously had some tough conversations as well and I know that I can be better in certain areas and he is pushing me to be the best player I can.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had pretty good form last year, and now I get to see the fruits of my labour paying off and a lot of that is credit to Strangey because he is a great coach and he brings out the best in his players\u201d<\/p>\n
Kernick speaks out on hectic schedule | 01:02<\/p>\n
Named in the extended squad for the opening match of the series in Newcastle which the Blues won, she has been promoted to the interchange bench following an injury to Tiana Penitani-Gray<\/p>\n
\u201cI was honestly grateful to just be in the extended squad and be around the girls in camp and just help out wherever I could,\u201d Butler continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cCarrying waters, carrying bags, I was willing to do whatever for the team because I knew this is a very team-first environment and any team that I play in I like to put my best foot forward even if I\u2019m not taking the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis time it\u2019s a little more nerve-racking. Last time I got to chill a bit more, more emotions weren\u2019t so high because I knew I was most likely not going to be playing so I was cruising, did training and got to do some extras<\/p>\n
\u201cThis time I\u2019m a bit more nervous and know there\u2019s a bit more pressure but pressure builds diamonds and I\u2019m ready to go <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m hoping to bring some impact off the bench, some energy, just get in there and just give it all I\u2019ve got. 120% rip in and make sure I leave nothing left in the tank and empty it all out on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Named to make her State of Origin debut on Thursday, self-proclaimed yapper Rima Butler admits she was \u201cspeechless\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-662736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}