Former Little Athlete and Rugby Sevens star Tiana Penitani will make her State of Origin debut for New South Wales at North Sydney Oval on Friday night.

The Eastern Suburbs LAC athlete was a dual State Team member, representing New South Wales at the Australian Little Athletics Championships in 2009 and 2011.

Penitani was the State Team captain at the 2009 Championships in Adelaide, helping New South place second in the Trevor Billingham Cup – in the same year, she won the Australian All Schools 80m hurdles title.

Two years later, she competed at the 2011 ALAC in the Sydney Olympic Park Athletic Centre, winning a gold medal in the U15 Pentathlon and the Life Members Trophy.

Penitani spoke with Athletics NSW in 2012 about her sporting aspirations.

“My main goals at the moment are to train hard and hopefully qualify for the World Youth Team next year,” said Penitani.

“I aspire to one day represent Australia in a Commonwealth Games or Olympic Games.”

Two years later, that’s precisely what Penitani did – however, not in athletics.

Penitani quickly transitioned to Rugby Sevens, and after making her Australian debut in 2013, she captained Australia to victory at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in China.

At 17 years and 163 days old, Penitani remains Australia’s youngest ever representative in a Rugby World Cup; whether that be male, female, 15’s or 7’s.

However, after rupturing her ACL weeks before the 2016 Summer Olympics, Penitani took a break from rugby union – her teammates went on to win Gold in Rio without her.

“I was ruled out of the Olympics a week before the team left for preparation camp,” said Penitani in an article on Players Voice.

“I had dedicated my whole life from such a young age to reach that point, only to let it slip through my fingers.

“I still cry talking about it.”

Penitani recently rekindled her passion for sports, playing rugby league for NSW City – the 23-year-old was awarded the 2019 Tahnee Norris Medal for Player of the National Championships.

After her dazzling performance against NSW Country in the Grand Final earlier this month, which included a hattrick, she was announced as a shock inclusion for the NSW State of Origin squad.

NSW City coach Steve Kelly praised Penitani for her classy performance.

“Tiana Penitani is going to be a super-star – I think I’ll be telling my grandkids that I coached her one day,” said Kelly.

New South Wales faces rivals Queensland Friday night at North Sydney Oval, looking to defend their title after winning the 2018 clash 16-10 – Penitani spoke about the nervous energy leading into Origin.

“It felt like my first day at school – even though I knew a lot of the girls and we’d trained the previous Sunday, I just felt super nervous,” said Penitani.

“As the youngest-ever Australian to play at a Rugby Sevens World Series event, people might see me as a rugby league convert; but that’s not right.”

In 2018, the NRL introduced a Pathways program for female athletes to encourage more young girls to compete in rugby league.

Penitani admitted that this program would have been extremely beneficial to her sporting development, but was grateful for the pathway athletics and rugby sevens had provided during her teenage years.

“To be able to have that pathway and opportunity for young females would have immensely helped the growth of the game,” said Penitani.

“You look at the men, and they have had that consistent pathway from the start through to their twenties.

“If the pathway had been there for girls, where women’s rugby league is today it could have been 10 to 15 years ago.

“Having to be reintroduced to the sport at my age, you’re playing catch-up on what you could have been learning 12 or 15 years ago.”

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Nic Savage

Little Athletics NSW