But it is a jump netballer Leila Tu’inukuafe is about to take. Tu’inukuafe, 19, who plays attack for Burnham in the senior A competition, has been called into the Tonga squad for her senior international debut at the games, which start in Glasgow on July 25. “It definitely is (a special feeling) to debut for my country. I definitely didn’t expect it, because I wasn’t confident when I trialled and I’m in a new position, here for club I play goal attack but I play mid-court for them, so I didn’t think I’d get the call to be in the team, it was a pretty surreal feeling.” Tu’inukuafe was born in New Zealand but is eligible for Tonga through her father Graeme, and represented their under 21s at last year’s World Youth Cup. Tonga’s first match is against world No 1 Australia, with Tu’inukuafe set to go head to head with some of her favourite players, like defender Courtney Bruce and mid-courter Jamie-Lee Price. “Australia first game is pretty daunting, but best to get it over and done with, I guess,” she said. “I still can’t comprehend, like, we’re playing against them, which is pretty cool.
Even if it’s definitely going to be a hard game, I grew up watching them, and now I’m playing against them.” Tu’inukuafe plays for both Burnham in the Selwyn competition on Thursday nights, and Kereru in the Christchurch competition on a Monday. Those commitments on top of studying psychology full-time at Canterbury University makes life busy. “It’s a bit full on, but I just love netball. My goal was to make the Tonga team, so I just thought, ‘the more game time, the better I can get’, so I just made it work. “I’ve had to be organised, but clearly it worked out.” She departs for Sydney on July 12 to link up with the team, before travelling to Glasgow ahead of the start of the tournament. After the games’ opener against Australia, Tonga then meets South Africa and Northern Ireland in each of the next two days, before having a day off and finishing pool play against world No 4 England and Malawi.
A top-two finish will see them progress to the semi-finals. Otherwise they will play a team from the other pool – which includes New Zealand – to determine their finish order.
