The second week of the school holidays couldn’t have come at a better time for Kahurangi utility rugby player Jess Drummond.
Her Jacks OPD premier netball side didn’t have to play so she could switch attention to her other passion.
“I was able to train with Kahurangi on a Thursday night for the first time this season. So, it was great in the lead up to the final,” says Jess.
The old saying, practice makes perfect, kicked in, and Jess went out and grabbed a hattrick on her home Cooks Reserve ground in Riwaka as Kahurangi overwhelmed the Waimea women 46-13.
Kahurangi was under pressure in the opening quarter where Jess’ rugged defence and scrambling for the ball was a feature.
Once the local backline got some quality ball they cut loose, with Jess getting back-to-back tries.
She chased down a kick and brushed aside two defenders before darting away to score her second try.
“You have just got to keep driving, keep being mongrel and keep going. Punching above my weight and trying to prove a point,” declares Jess.
She wouldn’t have minded being subbed at halftime as she is a key figure behind the scenes at the Riwaka club, including running the bar.
Instead, the 2017 New Zealand Women’s Sevens player looked set to complete a hattrick after breaking clear in the second spell, only to be run down.
“The old legs didn’t quite get me there, but I had good support from my team,” quips the 35-year-old mother of two.
But she did grab her third try just minutes later as Kahurangi cruised to its first title at its third attempt.
“It was an awesome game. It was unreal to see such a great crowd turn out for the women today. We made history,” declares Jess, who only made her15’s debut this season, after previously playing sevens and 10’s rugby.
She started in the forwards, switched to centre where she also primarily plays in netball, then to fullback, and was on the wing in the final, before ending up back at centre later in the game.
Effectively a wing attack and wing defence in rugby, so essentially a hybrid.
Her captain Hannah Kelly describes Jess as an absolute gamechanger, while Waimea would probably say game wrecker, the way she was disrupting their outside backs.
“She is a big part of the Riwaka club and to come in, with her knowledge, and back us up was huge. She has still got the speed,” says Hannah.
The irony is that Jess started playing rugby at Waimea, but a decade ago returned to help out the Motueka High School team.
The Waimea women probably knew what to expect on Saturday, as Jess also scored a hattrick against them last month, playing at centre.
“It was nice to get back in the middle. We played really good ball, width to width.”
But she wasn’t getting back behind the club bar on Saturday night.
Jess probably wouldn’t mind being the centre of attention in next month’s Nelson premier netball final too.
“I am hoping to do the double because we have been trying to get to the netball final for a long time too. It would be nice to get two championships in the one year,” concludes Jess.
A rare feat too.
First, Jacks has to get past a very competitive Nelson College for Girls side when she returns to the netball court on Thursday night.
