The country's premier women's rugby competition, the Farah Palmer Cup, kicks off this weekend.
Defending champions Canterbury are chasing a three-peat. However, captain Stephanie Te Ohaere-Fox (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Hako) says that the women's game is continuing to build and she is expecting this season to be tougher than the last,.
"Everyone's a big hitter in the competition now so now we can't anyone for granted," she said at the season launch on Tuesday at Auckland's Epsom Girls Grammar School.
The launch saw current Black Fern and Epsom Girls Grammar PE teacher Eloise Blackwell read questions written by the students to each of the representatives of the thirteen provincial teams.
Some were straightforward questions such as 'how did you get into rugby?' But some were more curly questions, such as one fired at recent Black Fern debutant Arihiana Marino-Tauhinu who was asked what advice would she give her 16-year-old self, to which her response was, "You are the writer of your own story. No one else can write it for you," which drew some reaction from the floor.
Canterbury Captain Stephanie Te Ohaere-Fox at the Farah Palmer Cup season launch in Auckland. Photo/File
One story Marino-Tauhinu is determined to write this year is the reclaiming of the coveted Farah Palmer Cup. The 2016 champions have fallen to the Cantabs in each of the last two Premiership grand finals, including last years 52-29 hammering in Christchurch. She says the team is still hurting and is looking forward to changing their fortunes when they face off again this year.
Captain of the two time defending champions, Te Ohaere-Fox can feel the rest of the competition putting a target on the Cantabrians and says it's driving them to be even better this year.
"The target is there, but for us it's about doing what we do and [looking at] how we improve rather than looking at everyone else coming at us," she says.
As with the Mitre 10 Cup, the Farah Palmer Cup is made up of two divisions, a Premiership and a Championship. Joining Canterbury and Counties-Manukau in the Premiership in 2019 is Waikato, Manawatū, Wellington, Auckland- who avoided relegation due to an expanded competition- and Bay of Plenty who earned promotion to the Premiership after winning the inaugural Championship last year.
Counties-Manukau Heat's Arihiana Marino-Tauhinu is wanting to go one better this year after losing the last two finals. Photo/File
The expansion of the competition sees Northland become the thirteenth province to enter a team. They join the Championship with neighbours North Harbour Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, Tasman and Otago.
The Farah Palmer Cup kicks off on Saturday, with the country's top women's rugby players battling it out for national supremacy.