Article from Marc Hinton - Senior Sports Writer at Stuff:

Blacks Ferns lock Charmaine Smith has a better perspective than most when it comes to the agonising wait for sport to start back up.

Smith is what you might call a multi-tasker, and an enforcer. The 29-year-old Auckland-based Northlander has played 27 tests for the New Zealand women's rugby team since her 2015 debut, including a starring role in the 2017 World Cup triumph. Like all of Glenn Moore's national squad, she's a dedicated professional desperate to get back out on the field.

And like so many of her team-mates Smith holds down a day job that she juggles with her rugby commitments. It's an important one, too, as she takes her place on the frontline of New Zealand's essential workforce enforcing the Covid-19 lockdown.

Smith is a recently qualified sergeant in the New Zealand Police with eight years' experience in the force, and heads a road unit responsible for ensuring her fellow Kiwis are abiding by the alert level restrictions in place because of the coronavirus pandemic.

So you could say she has a perfect perspective on the delicate balancing act between the country's fight to quell the killer virus and the desire to resume sport on the pathway back to normal life.

Smith and the Black Ferns have a World Cup to defend in New Zealand next year and an important series of leadup internationals planned (eight for 2020, including seven at home) as they continue their place at the vanguard of the growth of women's rugby.

But right now international sport must feel a long, long way away, and when you mention this to Smith her response speaks volumes for the position of responsibility she holds in society.

"It's hard to make any calls about that kind of thing," she tells Stuff in an interview from her home in south Auckland. "You just don't know what it's going to look like. In New Zealand we're doing awesome and you hear on the news what other countries are doing.

"When you start thinking, 'what if this, what if that?', when does it end? I find the best thing is to stay positive. We've got leaders in our country who have prioritised people's lives over everything else, and I'm so proud to be New Zealander… the leadership has been amazing.

"It's hard to make a call [on when the Black Ferns will play again]. I'm hoping it's not going to take a long time but if it means we have to wait a bit longer to make sure it's safe, then that's just how it is."

Smith was already immersed in the police before she headed down the rugby pathway in 2015. She had been a netballer all her sporting life, and had always thought of the Silver Ferns as her ultimate ambition. "I didn't even know there was a New Zealand women's rugby team when I was a kid," she recalls.

But she was persuaded to give rugby a go – at 1.83m and 82kg she has decent size to go with natural athleticism and a streak of Northland toughness – and after just five club games found herself called into the national setup.

It was, you might say, a baptism of fire. In her first test, in the super series in Canada in 2015, she was so green she had to pipe up and ask what a maul was. "Not my finest moment," she says now, with a smile. "I've come a long way since then."

But she was a quick learner and has been pretty much an ever-present in Moore's starting lineup since, usually alongside Eloise Blackwell in a second row of some repute.

Smith says the requirements of staying in shape under the lockdown have not been too much of an adjustment.

"I've always done shift work, so I'm used to training on my own".

It's been about staying ready, both physically and mentally, in the south Auckland home she shares with partner Tamati.

"You miss the team but we're just doing our best to stay connected via Zoom and such things and then at home (where they have a gym in their garage) it's getting those little skills and workouts in we can within the limits of the lockdown rules. I'm staying positive, just waiting to get back on the field."

Not that Smith has too much spare time on her hands as she adjusts to the new reality in the police force, which requires a lot of cleaning, the donning of personal protective equipment and developing a thorough understanding of the Health Act.

As part of the road policing unit she's been kept busy, but in a different way. "The one good thing about how things are at the moment is no one is getting injured on the roads, no one is going to hospitals, so we're not putting a strain on those resources."

Smith and her team still get the odd emergency callout, but their primary role is running checkpoints enforcing the lockdown. That, she says, requires no little skill and diplomacy.

"We're stopping cars, finding out where people are going and why they're out. We've come across people who have been breaking the rules (as at Thursday there had been 4452 breaches of the Act and 477 prosecutions), but it's different to a normal checkpoint -- everyone is really positive and kind coming through

"It is different standing at a checkpoint with a mask on, with gloves on. You're dealing with people with half your face covered, and it's almost like you've got to communicate even better because people can't see you're smiling.

"We try to do everything with kindness and empathy because so many people are going through so many things and you just don't know how this lockdown has affected them."

On the balance, Smith feels New Zealanders' response has been positive, even if she has rather heard the gamut of excuses. Her favourite? "The guy that was out playing Pokemon Go … we had a good laugh over that one."

"But we're doing so well … I just hope we continue. Everyone is making sacrifices, and we just need to stop the spread, squash these numbers and get back to everyday life, like playing rugby, visiting family and all the things we love."

Original Article: Click here

Article added: Sunday 26 April 2020