Ruby Tui playing for the Black Ferns against England in November 2023. Photo: Alex Leech / www.photosport.nz
World Cup winner and Olympic gold medalist Ruby Tui says the highest honour left to chase in rugby is making her coach proud.
Tui will return to Super Rugby Aupiki with the Chiefs Manawa in March after sitting out last season and taking a sabbatical to play in the Premier Rugby Sevens in the US.
The decision to take a break from the local competition and to use her talents on and off the field to grow the game overseas still sits well with Tui.
She says she would tell anyone who had spent 12 years playing international rugby to take stock of what "makes their heart pound" and what makes them want to turn up on a Monday to do the mahi.
Now that she is back with the Chiefs Manawa, a team she played for in 2022, that is where her focus lies.
"I've won an Olympic gold I've won a Rugby World Cup I don't actually think there is a higher honour than being a part of a team you believe in and making your coach and team mates proud ... I want at the end of the season [coach Crystal Kaua] to be really proud of us and I want at the end of this Aupiki campaign to stand there and be like ' I love rugby so much and rugby's given me so much I hope I can give back to this game' to me there is no higher honour than that."
Time away from Super Rugby Aupiki has shown Tui how much the competition has changed for the better but she acknowledges there is room to grow.
"I think as New Zealanders we do so well and punch so far above our weight in sport to push that growth we have to be even more open minded which is a bit different to other countries ... we actually have all this space to grow."
Ruby Tui of Chiefs Manawa runs after the ball during Super Rugby Aupiki in 2022 Photo: Photosport
Tui is feeling supported at the Chiefs and says she "can't quantify" how much the resourcing for the women's team has increased this season.
"The thing I love the most is as Black Ferns we're contracted throughout the year so we come in and we're fit and we're ready to go but you can see there is a definite difference between the non-professional rugby players but this year because of the resourcing and the support especially at the Chiefs for everyone we've come in and everybody is ready we're all open to the challenge everyone's been working really hard over the summer and I haven't seen that before.
"This year in particular I think all the Super franchises they've just amped it up."
Crystal Kaua is into her second season as the Chiefs Manawa head coach and Tui is effusive about what it is like to work with her.
"She's a really good human, Chiefs got a really good head coach who has really strong relationships around the world, even if you have to play against her or your coached under her the one thing everyone can agree is she is a good human and good humans produce great relationships.
"The Chiefs picking people like Crystal Kaua, identifying not just rugby skill but good relationships, she was the first to take a high school team right from absolutely nothing to year upon year of championships, international coaching, great relationships there, she was a Black Ferns sevens coach and she's been in such high performance environments she's come in [to Chiefs Manawa] and really demanded excellence from the hub here and everywhere she has gone she's done that."
Tui realises she's a team with some big personalities and some young players who looked up to her when they were at high school.
For her part Kaua says bringing Tui and her teammates together is the "beautiful thing about rugby".
"It's our differences that make it great. The differences in sizes and shapes and personalities and the way we see it the way we play it that's what makes the game so beautiful and so we can't expect that of them on the field but not off it so for me it's saying we want you to be yourself for this team and when you have big personalities that's often them being very clear on who they are and what they bring to the table and if you create the environment right that opens doorways for the young ones to get to that place sooner," Kaua says.
Tui didn't play in the Chiefs Manawa's heartbreaking final loss last season but she wants to win the title this season.
"It doesn't feel like pressure to win it feels like a responsibility to do the Chiefs Manawa proud, to do Crystal proud, to do our past players proud and to set really good standards not just the best in Super Aupiki but we want to be one of the best clubs in the world and I think that is a real possibility."
Super Rugby Aupiki kicks off on 2 March.