Who is Shyrah Tuliau-Tua'a?

The Farah Palmer Cup and the Rugby World Cup clashed last year. Both tournaments kicked off in August and hit playoffs in late September. This meant, I was out of the country when Waikato pipped Canterbury in the Premiership final. This meant, I was out of the loop when it came to Shyrah Tuliau-Tua'a.

The young winger is the bonafide bolter of the Black Fern Pacific Four squad. Leapfrogging Aupiki to get herself a potential international debut. Not since, Martha Mataele have seen a Black Fern cap off the back of FPC form. With all this in mind, I was determined to learn more about this player I had failed to see coming.

The place to start was last year's FPC final, so to YouTube I headed to see this young gun in action.

Watching this back, I caught a glimpse of what must have caught Whitney Hansen's eye at 3mins and 20 seconds in.

(Just as an aside, a great piece of footage to learn how to pronounce Tuliau-Tua'a as Taylah Johnson is one of the best.)

The kick through from Kelsyn McCook is partially charged down by Ariana Bayler and a busy Kaea Nepia, who collects her in a tackle. The ball comes ricocheting across the face of Neve Anglesey towards Shyrah on the edge. Her outside hand extends to stop it's flight to the touchline, batting it back to her other as she tucks and runs. Only the screech of a prior infringement could stop her from here.

That was bloody beautiful and I am now a fan.

At 6 minutes 20 seconds into this highlight package, she gets a skip ball out wide. A wave of Canterbury jerseys comes to meet her as she cuts in and drives toward the line. She's is clearly held up but she is also clearly fearless.

9 minutes 49 seconds in and Waikato finally go wide for what we now understand is the match winner. Although the write ups told me this was an easier try for Shyrah, she was actually shot a bullet above her head and managed to pull it quickly in to dot down. Core competencies of a winger done well. Delicious.

Okay, so watching this game back, I geeeeeet it now. But this was just the tip of the iceberg, Shyrah has actually been cooking for a while now even at her young age. Just in a less visible pathway.

Shryah comes out of Sacred Heart College in Hamilton. A team that has won back to back regional championships in her time and featured in the Condor 7s. That regional win is impressive as Hamilton is a hotbed for school girls rugby. Many of the young break through players in our high performance programmes come out of Hamilton. Veisinia Mahutariki-Fakalelu being the latest player to enter the Black Fern side before Shyrah.

Shyrah is known on the sevens scene. Named in the New Zealand under 18s team to compete in the Global Youth Sevens competition. Who else was in that team with her you might wonder? Oh just Black Fern midfielder Sylvia Brunt, Black Ferns 7s player Maia Davis and fellow potential debutants Taufa Bason and Justine McGregor. Other notable past members of that team include Jorja Miller and Braxton Sorensen-McGee, so although we may not hear much about it, it's a place where talent emerges.

Shyrah then went on to play for the Cook Island Girls team at the World Sevens and has been involved in a lot of development opportunities in the Waikato. That's what no doubt got her picked up in the Ignite 7s and an invite to the first New Zealand under 20s development camps held last year.

I lay all of this out just to say, no one ever comes out of no where. The point at which they break through into our consciousness is always the result of years of unseen graft. And is revealing of that part of the pathway that have access to coverage. Yes, Shyrah is young but so are more and more of them these days when they get scouted for high performance.

So congratulations to this daughter of the Waikato, the eldest of four siblings, the player that has previously listed her mum as her as her greatest inspiration. Congratulations to her whānau who got her here, who waited in the car after countless trainings, who stood on drizzly sidelines, who fundraised and encouraged her on the days she didn't feel up to it. To the coaches that put their time in, the managers who kept the systems humming, the teammates who get to cheer their sis on and dream a little bigger for themselves.

Congratulations to the system that worked to pick her up and pull her through.
More of that please, for all our sake.

Now that's she's arrived, I hope we take care of her. The older I get, the more anxious I am to see young players accelerated into our top teams. The explanation we are often given for talent that comes up quickly and then fades away is often individualised. We are told a bad attitude put them offside.

To me this is always a chicken and egg situation. I don't know how you're supposed to stay humble when you've been told you're the business at such a young age. I don't know how you're supposed to arrive the finished product when you're still developing your sense of self. We know that mindset is a skill set that must be developed but I don't know if we are always providing enough time and grace for that to mature.

I don't know but I hope the people around Shyrah do. Either way, I'll now be cheering her on.

With you,
Alice

PS. Les Elder and my podcast, Full Credit, is back for a new season. You can listen here or check us out on Youtube.