The Super Rugby Aupiki trophy. Photo: www.photosport.nz
Crystal Kaua is blunt.
It is a quality the Chiefs Manawa players appreciate from their head coach.
"It's just an honesty but with a deep care that underlies that. I think that when people know that you care about them you can say anything and they hear it," Kaua says.
Crystal Kaua Photo: Photosport
Kaua has high standards and she demands excellence.
She doesn't shy away from a hard conversation with a player or about the trajectory of women's rugby in New Zealand.
Kaua is into her second season as the Manawa head coach and she has a long resume that catalogues her success from grassroots to work with national sides and overseas.
Coaching a Super Rugby Aupiki side has unique challenges.
"Not even a club rugby team gets a window that short for prep for a competition if you think about the break that's been since international, since FPC we have 16 days to prepare athletes to scrum to go full live into contact and to play the best women in the country I don't know any other team in rugby, especially at a semi-professional level, I'd say anywhere in the world that does that.
"My biggest thing is is I want the public to understand and the fans to understand what we put together given the hand we are given is spectacular. You watch the quality of rugby at Super level and when people watch our first round game please note the number of days we've had together because that's the quality of rugby we're putting together.
"You're putting together new game plans, new [defence] systems and new attacking structures with that many days there's an art to that, creating a culture where people care about each other enjoy and love the game as well as play good code it's almost like the impossible task Aupiki as a head coach to try navigate it but I think that's why I love it so much because it is challenging."
The changes made to Super Rugby Aupiki this season - including better pay and an extended season are step up from the first two seasons of the competition Kaua says but she can still see room for more.
"It's movement in the right direction but it needs to be better. When you're looking at players and staff, when ultimately we are coaching seven games of rugby a year and we have our team together for Thursday to Sunday it's hard to progress one as a coach and two as a player I think we are scraping the surface of potential and so I think we're doing better than we've ever done before, New Zealand Rugby is doing better in the women's game than we've ever done before but we're still scraping the surface of what we could potentially be."
Georgia Thompson (nee Daals) of Chiefs Manawa Photo: www.photosport.nz
The Chiefs Manawa were last season's beaten finalists and Kaua doesn't want to feel that feeling of a loss again and it motivates her this season.
"It's always going to create a different level of hunger, for me personally I've never lacked hunger of learning of knowledge of growing but it deepens that. All coaches lose, all players lose, all teams lose at some point and often from that you get more than the wins so hopefully we see growth."
Kaua is backing her squad which includes multiple players with international experience and six Super Rugby Aupiki rookies to go one better this year.
"Every player we pick every year is what we believe is the best at the time so I believe the people that we've picked in our squad are the best people for us based on where we are at today and the way we want to play the game and I thought the exact same thing in the selections last year and so I believe that the people that we've picked are here for a reason because they bring something to the table that we need."
The Chiefs Manawa kick off the Super Rugby Aupiki competition on 2 March against the Hurricanes Poua in Hamilton.
