Rugby sevens has gained popularity across the globe following another world cup win from our national sides. Now New Zealand Rugby is looking to its Ignite7 programme to lead the next generation of rugby stars.
New Zealand Rugby launched Ignite7 in an effort to find new talent. More than 500 athletes have registered with the programme which could lead to them representing NZ.
New Zealand Rugby's High-Performance Manager Tony Philip says, " We sit down and chose three men and three women to join our national development programme in January, February and March and to hopefully inspire them to be a contracted player later on."
Around 120 of those who are registered are from outside of the code.
"We want to make sure that they have the best opportunity to play that weekend, cause you can't just have a non-rugby player come and play rugby so we're making sure we have the support around them to help them in that space."
For Grace Steinmetz, this may be chance a get to the Olympics.
"For me, i'd love to be able to go to the Tokyo Olympics but that might be too soon- I'd love to go to the one after that," says Steinmetz
And with the Tokyo Olympics just two years away, Philip says this is a space where young athletes can work hard to make those squads.
All registrations will go through a vetting process before 96 are chosen to play in a selection tournament in November.