Bunnings invests $30,000 to turn Kaitaia wahine into Te Rarawa rugby club

Public interest journalism funded by NZ On Air

Te Rarawa Rugby Club in Ahipara received $30,000 in funding to help upgrade their wāhine facilities.

“It was built just for guys at the time,” says club coordinator Georgina Linguard.

In order to make the club more comfortable and safer for the players, he plans to add more bathrooms and improve the showers.

Linguard says: “We get a lot of young girls and a lot of older women coming for the first time or coming back. They come from different backgrounds like netball and touch so they’re not really used to shared facilities. .”

The Bunnings Rugby Assist program is funding Te Rarawa to improve and expand showers and bathrooms for women. The grant also supports nine other grassroots rugby clubs across Aotearoa.

Te Rarawa Rugby Club is over 100 years old, but only five years ago they established a women’s team to compete in local competition.

During those five years, the women’s team reached the final four times. The club hopes the accommodating wāhine will help his team become a permanent fixture.

Club chairman Leslie Wallace said: “We are trying to make the rugby club a community facility, the main reason being that here in Ahipara we don’t have a community hall.”

Covid restrictions meant the club could not celebrate its centenary. The financial boost means the community will be better able to host the event.

Bunnings Rugby Assist Ambassador Ruby Tui says she is delighted to see how this support will help women’s rugby thrive in Aotearoa.