Having recently landed a Black Ferns Sevens development contract, she’s just been in France where the development side’s just played in back-to-back international tournaments.
Now based in Mount Maunganui, the 20-year-old — who attended Arrowtown School and Wakatipu High — first played for the side at the Oceania Sevens in Brisbane last December.
She again made the side, under the guise of the Matakesi team, at the Coral Coast Sevens in Fiji the following month, which they won.
She was also contracted to the Chiefs Manawa squad for the Super Rugby Aupiki 15-a-side comp, but missed out on both the preseason and proper season due to injury.
However, in April she played in the Hong Kong 10s tournament in an invitational team called the Tropics, who came third. "It was an unreal experience," she says.
After rejoining the Chiefs, Watherston was then handed her NZ Sevens’ development contract.
On returning from France, her team’s going into camp with the Black Ferns Sevens to help prepare them for next month’s Paris Olympics.
Following that, Watherston — who’s also doing part-time study in sport and human performance — will resume 15-a-side Farah Palmer Cup rugby with the Bay of Plenty Volcanix, whom she first represented in 2022.
She explains she moved to the Mount that year, for her last year of school, purely for rugby, as there’s no sevens rugby down south.
"The move was definitely worth it, and I’ve loved the journey that’s come with it."
While a winger in the 15s game, she’s a prop, and occasionally hooker, in the seven-a-side game.
"Sevens is the game I want to play professionally, and my main goal, but if 15s fits in somewhere, I will be very happy as well.
"I love the physicality and speed of the sevens game, it suits how I play.
"I want to see how far I can go, with some big goals to make the NZ Sevens team and play in some world series and the next Olympics.
"I am very lucky with the unreal support my family give me, I’m very, very grateful to all of them, and couldn’t have done this without them."
Watherston made her rep debut for the Otago Spirit 15s side in 2021 when she was still at Wakatipu High — that year she also received a Kate Moetaua Foundation sports scholarship.
