Matatū to draw strength from mountains in inaugural Super season

February 11, 2022

The players say the South Island's first female Super Rugby team will help build a better future for women's rugby. (Source: Te Karere)

The saying goes if you can see it, you can believe it.

Now wearing Matatū's first ever jersey, the team's women can finally feel like Super Rugby Aupiki players.

The South Island's first fully professional female rugby team say the Māori stories related to Te Waipounamu's mountains has added extra meaning.

"The story behind what this shirt means for us, not only us but the whole South Island is amazing, I love the reikura, the manawāhine it brings," Terauoriwa Gapper said.

"I never knew much about Aoraki and that whole story of his brothers either side of him and how he came back to visit his step mum, papātuanuku," Steph Te Ohaere-Fox said.

The prop said it's that connection to the land and its people which makes this team so much more special.

"So learning that story is amazing and to be able to tell my children, so the jersey means a bit more because I can tell them the story."

What will outlast the jersey though is the legacy these women hope to believe behind.

For Gapper, it's about laying a foundation for future generations.

"Young children and girls coming up it gives them something to aspire and the manawāhine in this group will create a huge legacy," Gapper said.

Matatū's first game of the inaugural Super Rugby Aupiki season will against the Hurricanes Poua on March 6.

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