The Hirini Rugby Academy is Changing the Game

When Sarah Hirini was just ten years old, she was too shy to sign up for rugby even though the sport drew her in. Being the only girl meant that playing the sport she loved was taken away through fears of her own. She finally mustered up the courage and took the leap at age 13. Now 32, she’s captain of the Black Ferns Sevens, New Zealand's premier women's rugby team, and a TUDOR ambassador.

“I don’t want that to happen to any kid today. Access to the sport for young women is so important; being from a small rural town meant I didn’t have much access when I was getting into it ,” Hirini says.

Her solution? Bring the access to young women around New Zealand by creating her very own pathway to playing rugby, called the Hirini Rugby Academy. 

“Rugby is one of the fastest growing sports in New Zealand; the interest today is amazing. But even in New Zealand, there’s plenty of room to grow.” Hirini also credits the Olympics for raising interest among demographics that haven’t heard much about rugby. Tokyo and Paris saw back-to-back gold medals for the Black Ferns Sevens, and that certainly helped draw new people into the sport.

“I know that if I can go to these places where there’s no pathway to rugby and create one, that more and more kids will be able to find inspiration and confidence with the sport—it teaches leadership, and I’m speaking from personal experience coming from a small town,” Hirini says. She leads by example,  having created the Te Puke Beach Sevens competition through the Hirini Rugby Academy, which saw four entirely new women’s teams and four entirely new men’s teams on the pitch for the weekend. This competition was the first of its kind, and was even televised locally. The players wouldn’t not have had such an opportunity if it weren’t for the Hirini Rugby Academy’s efforts, supported by Tudor.

The Hirini Rugby Academy has already had a tremendous impact on the lives of young women aspiring to join the sport, one particular example is the incredible story of Olive Watherston     .

Olive is from the rural area of Arrowtown, with an underdeveloped infrastructure to support growth in the sport of rugby. She joined the Hirini Rugby Academy program at 19 years old in 2024 and hasn’t looked back since.  She played in the Te Puke Beach Sevens tournament on a Saturday, and by Monday Olive had an invitation to attend the Black Ferns Sevens pre-camp where they named the touring team to play in the Sevens World Series in Dubai and Cape Town. Olive would make her go on to make her New Zealand debut in Cape Town.     

“It’s easy to drop out of the sport at a certain age when players are young, so that’s when it’s most important to keep them in this ecosystem. That’s why we have this pathway,” remarks Sarah.

Her plans for 2025? Doubling the reach the Academy had in 2024. The hope is that the Hirini Rugby Academy can offer a pathway into the development space and impact even more aspiring players.