International rugby star Risi Pouri-Lane loves returning to where her sporting journey began.<\/p>\n
The 26-year-old was back in Motueka during her off-season break and was barracking for Kahurangi as it won the Tasman Trophy Women\u2019s final in Riwaka on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Two of her former Motueka High School teammates, Lyric Siaki and Emily Kelly, scored tries as Kahurangi beat the Waimea Women 46-13.<\/p>\n
Kahurangi captain Hannah Kelly had also been in the MHS girls\u2019 rugby side from a decade ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very good high school team. We made the Tasman Trophy final nearly every single year we played but only won it once,\u201d recalls Risi, who was a first five back then before her New Zealand Sevens call-up in 2017.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is good for me to get away from Tauranga, as that\u2019s where work is. I have come home and switched off from rugby apart from supporting the girls here today. It is really cool to see them still playing and winning a premiership.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s accustomed to that winning feeling with two Olympic gold medals, a Commonwealth Games one as well, and countless world sevens series successes too.<\/p>\n
The halfback also debuted for the Black Ferns 15-aside team last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a chance I could have played Super Rugby Aupiki this season, but I definitely needed a break after the Olympics, sevens and 15\u2019s. So, I came home, spent time with the family and reset,\u201d says the 2024 and 2025 Sport Tasman Supreme Sports Award winner.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am coming up 10 years in sevens, but the family always gives me their two cents worth and keeps me grounded.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s also in the perfect place to offer advice to her younger brother Rei, the Nelson College 1st XV captain, who cracked his hand mid-season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said to him, there is always a reason for everything, and it\u2019s given him a chance to rest his body. He had a niggly knee as well. The biggest thing is to enjoy any opportunity you can get at that age,\u201d enthuses the Black Ferns Sevens co-captain when they won Olympic Gold in Paris in 2024.<\/p>\n
Her partner Isaac Te Aute has tread a very similar path to Risi.<\/p>\n
The Rotorua Boys\u2019 1st XV captain was fast tracked into the All Black Sevens in 2015 while still at high school.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe go hunting together when we come down here. We have been lucky to go with some of Isaac\u2019s mates. They know the best locations, but I am keeping them secret.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no hiding Risi’s rugby success though with 70 tries in her 143-game sevens career, and she kicks goals as well.<\/p>\n
She returns to pre-season training, in the warmer climes of the Bay of Plenty, on 10 August ahead of the next sevens series which starts in Dubai in December.<\/p>\n
Several of her former teammates or rivals have switched to rugby league and she thought about changing codes too.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut while they are soaking up that experience, I am making the most of my time in sevens,\u201d confirms Risi, who is signed with NZ Rugby through to 2028.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"International rugby star Risi Pouri-Lane loves returning to where her sporting journey began. The 26-year-old was back in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":823580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-823579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823579","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=823579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/823580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=823579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=823579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}