Rugby: Nicolson keeping good company on way to milestone

Zingari-Richmond veterans Rachael Platt (left) and Sacha Nicolson train at the Montecillo gound...
Zingari-Richmond veterans Rachael Platt (left) and Sacha Nicolson train at the Montecillo gound in Dunedin yesterday. Photo by Peter McIntosh.
Sacha Nicolson will become just the second Otago women's rugby player to notch 200 premier matches when she turns out for Zingari-Richmond against Kaikorai on Saturday.

Veteran Pirates and Black Ferns prop Margaret "Bro" McKenzie was the first to clock up the double ton, in 2006.

"It means a lot to me and is the proudest moment of my rugby career," Nicolson told the Otago Daily Times yesterday. Nicolson (33) does not think she will reach 300 games.

"There is no way I want to continue training as hard for another eight years," she said.

"We did not have many players at the start of the year and I thought our team was smashed up."

She was relieved that enough players came back to enable the team to continue, as it meant she could reach 200 games.

It was also important for club mate Rachael Platt (32), who has now played 150 games for the club.

"It was a team decision to keep coming back and I just had to keep playing," Nicolson said. "I enjoy the company."

It is a measure of the pair's dedication that they have kept playing despite often being in a losing team.

"It's been a bit disheartening," Platt said.

"We have a small number of girls playing but the team is improving its confidence all the time.

"It is better for girls wanting to play rugby to join us because they will get games and not have to sit on the sideline as they do in the big clubs."

Both players intend to keep playing for Zingari as long as they are needed.

"I love playing rugby. l'll definitely be back next year, even if they have to wheel me about the field," Nicolson said.

Nicolson was a 15-year-old pupil at Kaikorai Valley High School when she started playing for Zingari in 1991.

"Mum and dad thought it was just a phase I was going through. It has lasted 19 years and that's a pretty long phase," she said.

Her first full premier game was against Green Island, and Zingari won 26-5.

She had come on as a replacement against Southern a week earlier.

She started playing at first five-eighth and has interchanged as a prop for most of her career.

Nicolson reached her 100th premier game against Alhambra-Union 10 years ago and is one of four Zingari centurions who will play against Kaikorai at Bishopscourt on Saturday.

The others are Jackie Padman, Bronwyn Padman and Platt.

Her loyalty to the Zingari club has been tested many times, with players from other clubs saying she would have a better chance of making the Otago team if she switched clubs.

"I am keen to go as far as I can in rugby," Nicolson said.

"But I like the family side of Zingari and club loyalty means more to me than a blue Otago jersey."

Platt was a member of the hockey first XI at Otago Girls High School and found rugby strange when she started playing for Zingari in 1996.

"I had no idea what I was doing," Platt recalled.

"I was like a young schoolboy and just followed the pack and the ball."

She likes the physical side of the game and enjoys tackling.

"I lacked confidence at the start but as my skills developed I have become more confident," she said.

"It's been a personal goal of mine to reach 150 games and I'm stoked about it."

She is a brother of former Zingari premier Tim Platt, who now plays for the Port Macquarie club in New South Wales.

 

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