Tamworth's sevens captain, 40, said that when she started playing the sport in 1996 in New Zealand, the prevailing sentiment was one of dismissal: females should not be on a rugby field.

She seems genuinely awestruck by its development since then, in terms of participation rates, the quality of players and public acceptance. 

Love sport? Subscribe today and receive a sports fan discount.

Along with her partner, Magpies second-grade back-rower Angus Cosgrove, she relocated to Tamworth from Sydney in March last year. Tamworth were about to launch their first sevens side, and she came out of a lengthy retirement to help steer the side through uncharted waters.

Ahead of Tamworth's third-round away clash against the Blues on Saturday, the New Zealand-born player is in equal parts excited about the Magpies' future and the future of women's rugby. 

Across the ditch, Field played club rugby for Massey, in Auckland, and provincial rugby for North Harbour. She was a lock.

On arriving in Sydney, she joined Waverley, before linking with Tamworth. Her rugby experience is generous and varied - covering both 15-a-side and sevens rugby.

In her homeland, she made a "broad" World Cup training squad but got a job and retired from rugby before seeing "how far I could go". She resumed playing upon relocating to Sydney.

"I've been playing rugby longer than some of the [Tamworth] girls have been alive," she said, adding that she got involved with the Magpies as a way to meet people, and had intended to take on a support role with the sevens side.

READ ALSO:

"Somehow I ended up putting the boots back on," she said, noting: "The team's coming along really well [they suffered narrow losses in the first two rounds]."

The revolution under way in the advancement of women's sport - which has turned rugby and other sports into legitimate career pathways for females - has been embraced by Tamworth, according to Field.

"The Magpies are doing everything they can to encourage the women's team, to support them, to include them in everything," she said. "So it's a complete [shift] to what it was when I first started to where it is now."

Field finds that "heartwarming". "They [the players] can only do wonderful things from there," she said.

Sign up to receive The Leader's breaking news and top stories straight to your inbox.