The Ōpōtiki women’s rugby team are excited at what the season might hold for them this year.

After a competitive 2025 campaign where they made the semifinals with limited numbers, the clubs has a strong group of ladies back on board with some new faces and it bodes well for the season.

With 30 ladies on their team list, they certainly won’t struggle putting out a team this season.

Player-coach Helena Coughlan said they were ready to kick off their campaign this weekend.

“Our ladies are looking good this year, very excited for this season, our numbers are great, the communication and commitment has been awesome. We are getting awesome numbers at training and that makes it easy on me.”

Coughlan said they had some exciting layers in their squad this year.

“We have a few new faces this year; we have a few college players and a few ladies returning back to rugby. We have an awesome mixture of players and talent within our team.”

This year, they are keeping their goals simple.

“Our aim is to make the finals, for our ladies to keep developing and improving to upskill our ladies and, hopefully, can push a few to the Volcanix, creating opportunity for ladies here in Ōpōtiki.”

This year there is a new team joining their competition in Tihirau Victory Club and that’s who Ōpōtiki face first.

“We’can’t wait to face them; it’s going to be a good game.

“We are very excited to have TVC in our comp as we have them first. It will be so awesome to play our whānau down the coast.”

One team the Ōpōtiki ladies want to face this year is Te Puna, after losing to them in the semifinals last year.

Coughland said they had heaps of key players in their team and they all played their part.

Ōpōtiki will also face Greerton Marist, Te Puke Pirates and Arataki.