She had worked on dairy farms at Dacre, near Invercargill, for the past three years and travelled to Dunedin each weekend to play for the Alhambra-Union club and Otago Spirit.
She now works as a service delivery driver in Dunedin and has more time to concentrate on her rugby.
Stoddart (24) first played for Otago Spirit at the age of 15 and was appointed captain when Anika Tiplady was injured.
"It's an honour," she said this week.
"I like leading from the front. I'd rather do it than talk about it. But I find it easy to communicate with the girls as captain."
This approach is working because the Otago Spirit has had a good season and won three of its first four games.
Stoddart proved her ability as a leader by captaining Alhambra-Union to its sixth Otago club championship banner in 11 years two months ago.
Stoddart fell in love with rugby from the age of 5 after watching the All Blacks games on television.
"I loved watching the boys do the haka," she said. "Mum was scared I'd get hurt and wouldn't let me play."
Her mother Sharron Stoddart relented five years later and her daughter joined Alhambra-Union when she was 10 and played premier rugby for the club from the age of 14.
"Kerry didn't like ballet or playing the piano," her mother said.
Stoddart is a fiery flanker with the ability to make ground with the ball.
She has encouraged the forwards to run aggressively from the breakdown to upset the defence before releasing the ball to the backline.
Stoddart said her team was inspired by the wide public support that helped the team raise the $20,000 needed to compete in the national championships.
"We want to give something back to those who have backed us,"she said.
"The financial and moral support has helped us."
The next test will today when Otago plays its fifth game of the NPC against Waikato, in Hamilton.
It needs a win.
"I believe we can make the final," Stoddart said.
"We have done the hard yards and believe in each other."
To reach the final Otago has to win its last two games against Waikato and Auckland.
"We need bonus points as well," Otago coach Marty Gray said. "That's our task and the girls are up for that."
Otago started well against Manawatu and had a bonus point by halftime. But it fell off its tackles in the second spell and let Manawatu back into the game.
"We did lose a bit of shape and there have been issues we worked on at training this week," Gray said.
"We needed to get up and shut them down before they launched their attack.
"We got a wee bit lazy and gave them too much room in the second half."
Otago v Waikato
Hamilton today, 2pm.
Otago: Hailee Hurring, Jamie Greene, Kelly Brazier, Claire Richardson, Arna McLeod, Victoria Nafatali, Jenna Aikman, Angie Sisifa, Kerry Stoddart (captain), Rachel Scott, Nicky Crawford, Zoe Wills, Pip Love, Lucy Emery, Kat Wilton. Reserves: Rebecca Todd, Karina Nafatali, Biddy Sefton, Leyhana van Vugt, Claire Smith, Anika Tiplady, Greer Muir.
Waikato: Chyna Hohepa, Carla Hohepa, Honey Hireme, Teresa Te Tamaki (captain), Jordan Webber, Chelsea Alley, Racqual Anderson, Francea Hansen, Nicole Boulton, Crystal Kaua, Ashlee Gaby-Sutherland, Victoria Edmonds, Rochelle Smiler, Kendra Reynolds, Baye Jacobs. Reserves: Ginia Muavae, Tracy Helleur, Azania Watene, Rihipeti Magner, Regina Sheck, Janelle Pownceby, Ariana Hira Ferangi.
