Nicole Purdom is headed for great things on the rugby paddock – but for which country? Photo supplied.What was meant to be a few months’ playing rugby and getting life experience in Ireland has left Nicole Purdom with a massive decision to make.

Purdom, 21, had played rugby since she was five years old and the dream had always been to play for the Black Ferns.

But this week the Ashburton woman will head back to Ireland knowing that if all goes well, she has every chance of running out on to the paddock for Ireland in the next Women’s Rugby World Cup.

“But the moment I play for Ireland, I can’t play for New Zealand,” Purdom said.

If she pulled on the green jersey of Ireland, she’d be kissing goodbye to any hope she had of one day playing for the country she’d always call home and it was a decision Purdom wouldn’t be making lightly.

A firm fixture in the Canterbury women’s side in recent seasons, the number eight’s last game in New Zealand was the 2017 Farah Palmer Cup women’s provincial final, where Canterbury claimed their first national title.

A week later, Purdom was on a plane bound for Ireland for what she thought would only be an eight-month visit to play some rugby and get a taste of what the rest of the world was about.

“I left the week after I graduated from uni and I just went for the life experience, because I always said I wanted to go somewhere overseas and play rugby,” Purdom said.

She had options throughout Europe, but many clubs wanted her there earlier than she could manage.

She wanted to finish her sport coaching and management degree at university first, so Ireland was the option that suited her the best, and it turned out to have been the right move.

There she played for the Suttonians club in Dublin and Purdom helped to take them from cellar-dwellers, to a team that was beating teams they weren’t expected to.

“It was amazing, because our team was so bad when I first got there, and by the end of it we had won the competition,” Purdom said.

A young team of players no older than 22, Suttonians earned themselves promotion to division one.

“The girls just needed someone to motivate them and lead them on the field.

“They didn’t have that leader on the field before I got there and I talk a lot on the field so I basically just told them where to go,” Purdom said.

From there she was asked to play for Leinster – the top Irish side and the equivalent of playing for Canterbury in New Zealand – so after a five-week break in New Zealand, she was this week heading back to start training with the side ahead of their provincial competition starting in September.

Leinster were paying for her to head back over and she’d also been short-listed for a job as the club’s community development officer.

Last year Purdom was an intern at the Canterbury Rugby Football Union, working as a women’s rugby development officer.

Women’s rugby was booming in Ireland, something that was in part due to the last women’s world cup being held in Ireland.

“It’s crazy. Here in New Zealand there’s one division with eight teams, whereas in Ireland there’s five divisions with like at least 10 teams in each division,” Purdom said.

The numbers were bigger, but the quality of women’s rugby in New Zealand was higher.

The only way to bring that level up in Ireland was by attracting better coaches and better players, so Ireland appeared keen to keep hold of Purdom.

She had already been in talks with the Irish women’s coach, Kiwi Adam Griggs, who wanted her to be involved with training and camps with the national side with an eye to the next women’s world cup.

While Purdom had Irish roots, they were too far back for her to qualify to play for Ireland straight away, so she’d have to play three years in Ireland in order to qualify.

“There’s definitely going to be a point later on in my life where I’m going to have to decide where I want to settle,” she said.

New Zealand would always be home, but at the moment, Ireland was where the best opportunities were on offer.

By Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 10 July 2018