Lucy Jenkins was fortunate to not only know about the Black Ferns but have one on her front doorstep.
The Matatu flanker grew up on the family farm in Canterbury where Casey Caldwell (nee Robertson) worked during her rugby career.
The 39-cap Black Fern, who has since returned to her family home in Wyndham, spent many days with Jenkins and inspired her to become a Black Fern, a feat she achieved last year.
Jenkins said her relationship with Caldwell, who played in four World Cups, was "pretty special" for her as a 7-year-old wanting to play rugby professionally.
"I guess my story’s quite unique," Jenkins said.
"Not many of the Black Ferns these days grew up knowing about the Black Ferns or wanting to be that. For me, it’s been quite a long journey.
"She was a beast on the field. But for me, she was just a cool person to be around, just really cracked me up, always made me laugh, and I really just wanted to be like her for a long time."
Jenkins had a breakout season last year. She was named Super Rugby Aupiki player of the year, got a call-up for the Black Ferns and even scored a couple of tries in Dunedin during the WXV tournament.
She dreamt of being a Black Fern and to finally tick that off her bucket list was "pretty awesome".
"Now I’m just all about seeing what I can do for [Matatu] every week [and] not worry too much about the future.
"If I get another opportunity in black, it’s just about earning every single test match after that."
Rugby’s landscape had changed dramatically since she was a child, where she was the one of the only girls among the local competition.
She felt it was a "very special time" for the future of women’s rugby, and for young girls to look up to her, and know they can make a career from the game.
"That’s something that’s pretty exciting because even though I wanted to be a Black Fern, you kind of had that, ‘oh, that’s not really something that I can do as a job’ until it became a thing a couple of years ago."
Her career had not come without hardship and she was gutted Matatu were now out of the hunt to defend their Super Rugby Aupiki title this year.
Matatu have lost their opening four games of the season and have failed to pull together some consistency.
"We don’t love to lose. It’s been pretty tough coming off last year."
They remained a tight group but Jenkins was ready for some redemption and to finally get a win against the Hurricanes Poua in Christchurch.
"We’ve been improving every week and putting little things together, so I think this week it’s just time for us to unleash and show what we’ve got.
"We know on our day we can beat any team in this competition — excited to see what we can do on Friday."
