From Paris gold medallist in sevens, to a Brisbane Bronco in the Women's NRL, Stacey Waaka is making herself available for the New Zealand league team, which has two upcoming Tests against Australia and Papua New Guinea.
“Initially I was like nah... then after two weeks my mind started to change," Waaka said. "If I a have a good season then cool, I'll be happy. If things don't go well I'm sorry, I don't think I deserve it."
That's unlikely to happen, although she's made it clear she doesn't want any favours from the national selectors.
“Other players have been bugging me to play and it’s a goal of mine to learn more about the heritage of the Kiwi Ferns, as well as playing.
"We were emailed to see if we were keen, so I decided to say yes."
A star of the Black Ferns Sevens for nearly a decade, Waaka is now making big inroads in the NRLW in her debut season for the Broncos.
“It’s refreshing, it’s challenging, it’s growing massively," Waaka said when describing NRLW.
NZRL's head of women's rugby league Luisa Avaiki said: "It's exciting that we have top female athletes in another code that have an interest to come over and give league a go."
Avaiki played in the mid 90s in the pioneering Kiwi Ferns teams.
“Really, it's not much different to what it was when we played, we had a lot of cross-coders who came from other sports to rugby league."
Tokyo Sevens gold medallist Gayle Broughton has also made herself available for the first time. She's played three seasons in the NRLW and now plays for Brisbane.
“It's not only a big honour to represent your people, your culture but man, it’s representing home," Broughton said.
“I hear people say I kind of started this sevens trailblazing, coming from sevens... but I was just another person."
Sevens star Tyla King played for the Kiwi Ferns last year and is now back in the NRLW with the St George Illawarra Dragons.
Nadene Conlon is a former Kiwi Ferns skipper and manages national teams, both men's and women's. She's also at the forefront in resurrecting the Warriors women's team in next year's NRLW.
“To have those players who've been in high performance programmes and then to come into rugby league at the highest levels, it's only going to be a good thing for our sport."
“Women can actually be almost full-time athletes now, live out their dreams... what they want to do."
So will there be any familiar names in the new Warriors women's team?
Conlon said she’s not letting out any secrets at this time that will all come out before too long.
The Kiwi Ferns beat Australia last year with the big rematch scheduled to be held in Christchurch at the end of October.
They're now looking to win again, with both familiar, and new, faces.
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