\u201cAnd I know the season\u2019s only short, but I also know it\u2019s going to go fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stacey Waaka has switched from rugby sevens to league and will play in the NRLW for the Warriors. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
She\u2019s been named as a reserve for this weekend\u2019s opening fixture against the Bulldogs in Hamilton, but is happy to take her time in working her way into the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m also being real positive and patient, because I haven\u2019t been here for that long, so I just want to soak in as much as I can, be amongst the girls, see them warm up, see them go out and make some massive hits this weekend. I\u2019m ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Waaka explained how she\u2019s trying to help those who are new to the team, but also learn from those with more experience than her. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo be amongst so many different levels of experience, teaching people what I\u2019ve learned from my professional experiences in the past, and then learning what they\u2019re learning too on the go,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s still some experienced heads here, and I love picking their brains. I love learning what they\u2019re learning, and it\u2019s just really cool to be amongst some stars of the game, and some new ones coming through.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Warriors\u2019 gain could be New Zealand Rugby\u2019s loss, with Black Ferns Sevens captain Risi Pouri-Lane explaining before the Bordeaux tournament how important Waaka was to the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe will definitely be missed, and I guess I have no doubt that it won\u2019t be the end for her,\u201d Pouri-Lane said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that she\u2019ll add so much value to the Warriors, and so I\u2019m excited for that journey for her.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously it\u2019ll be hard for us to not have her around, but I\u2019m sure that she\u2019ll just take a lot of knowledge and a lot of value to the Warriors campaign, and hopefully it\u2019s not the last time she is in the black jersey.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut for the time that she\u2019s over there, I just hope that she adds so much value and impact to the environment. We will miss how loud she is; we\u2019ll miss how we can hear her from another side of the room without seeing her, but especially her leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s such an awesome leader in the way that she drives standards and the way that she upholds what it means to be a professional sportsperson and what it means for us to wear the black jersey.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Warriors kick off their NRLW season at 3.45pm on July 5 against the Bulldogs in Hamilton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAnd I know the season\u2019s only short, but I also know it\u2019s going to go fast.\u201d Stacey Waaka…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3017,52123,7022,49395,1038,17515,10541,4241,6288,42,78,1043,19133,49539,2510,43,22766,1118,25292,20248,6327,6926,86296,53477,7187,1961,21638,40,38,41,39,8238,74248,3006,102,377],"class_list":["post-509258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-ahead","tag-belt","tag-black","tag-boosts","tag-brings","tag-experience","tag-ferns","tag-gold","tag-hamilton","tag-headlines","tag-in","tag-leadership","tag-looking","tag-medals","tag-multiple","tag-news","tag-nrlw","tag-of","tag-olympic","tag-opener","tag-rugby","tag-season","tag-sevens","tag-stacey","tag-team","tag-this","tag-titles","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-under","tag-waaka","tag-warriors","tag-with","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}