New Zealand: The teenage girl who plays men's rugby

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-28344543

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An 18-year-old girl in New Zealand has reportedly joined a men's rugby team and is playing competitively with them.

April Miller has already played "four or five games" for Pukerau Rugby Club, an amateur team, The Southland Times reports. Miller, whose uncle played rugby for New Zealand's national squad, the All Blacks, says she was worried she would have to give up rugby after graduating from school as there are no teams for women in Southland, New Zealand's southernmost region.

But one afternoon while watching Pukerau play rugby she asked if she could join them. To her surprise, the team said yes. "I thought they were only joking but they weren't," Miller says. "They found me a jersey so we went from there."

The club's president Jack McIntosh says Miller plays lock position well. "She's an aggressive tackler, a good ball carrier - she doesn't hang off," he says. While Miller hasn't scored a try this season, she says she has "stopped a few - that's my fame", adding that other all-male teams seem happy to play against her.

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