Maddie Flutey: 'I feel like whatever happens is meant to be'

Maddie Flutey has already packed a lot into her 18 years but in rugby terms she’s just getting started.

Born in London, Flutey has also lived in Japan and France. Raised in New Zealand, she’s been domiciled in Wellington and Dunedin. She’s played for not one, but two professional teams known as the Chiefs, started her law studies and, when back home in Dunedin, can be seen on shift at the family café where the ‘Starfish Stack’ comes highly recommended.

She’s a bright and breezy personality, already shrugging off inevitable questions about her international eligibility with ease, a seemingly level head on young shoulders with a solid support network and a family rugby pedigree that suggests she was born to drive a team around the park.

Flutey’s currently doing that for the Chiefs Manawa in Super Rugby Aupiki, having made her debut in Round 1 and coming off the bench in every match so far to slot in at first-five. She’s also done it for the Exeter Chiefs, playing three matches in Premiership Women’s Rugby late last year before returning to New Zealand prior to Christmas and being offered a surprise contract to Hamilton.

The last few months have been a bit of a whirlwind. She finished high school early to go to the UK and has now put her university studies on hold during Aupiki, but as one of a new generation of young female players who will only know the professional game Flutey wouldn’t have it any other way.

“It’s been amazing,” Flutey told RugbyPass. “I don’t think I realised when I was going over to Exeter how big it is and how many international players there are, like, being able to learn from someone like [Canada captain] Alex Tessier was insane. And then the environment up here at Chiefs Manawa has also been amazing. The girls are so caring and welcoming and especially coming into a professional team as an 18-year-old being a game driver, like, that could be really hard, but not with these girls.”

Flutey is also part a cohort who come with the tag ‘daughter of’ or ‘sister of’. Amarante Sititi, sister of All Black Wallace, Keelah Bodle, daughter of Black Ferns great Annaleah Rush and Poppy Baxter, daughter of Matatu coach Blair, are among those forging their own paths in Super Rugby Aupiki this season.

Flutey dad is former Maori All Black, British & Irish Lion and England international Riki. He’s now an assistant coach for the Black Ferns, and Flutey says he’s been a huge guiding factor in getting her to this point.

“He’s definitely been my main driver. Even in his bigger coaching roles he always would help out my team, and then obviously do individual trainings with me. He’ll review trainings with me and my game, always gives me main focus points and key little things to help me improve each week.”

Flutey laughingly agrees that she’s probably never truly realized just how many legends of the game she’d have spent time around over the years of her dad’s playing and coaching career. In fact, it was seeing another great in action that sparked her desire to play.

“Watching Dad play professionally meant rugby was always part of my life, but I think I was about eight we were watching the Rio Olympics at home in Wellington, and I remember seeing Portia Woodman, and I was like, oh, who’s that? I want to be like her, and basically straight after that we were down the rugby club and I was playing for my brothers team.”

Her link back to the UK and stint at Exeter came through her dad’s connections. The Flutey’s were invited down to England training by John Mitchell when the team were in Dunedin in 2023 for WXV, allowing 15-year-old Flutey to rub shoulders with the likes of Jess Breach and Abby Dow.

RFU Women’s High-Performance Manager Charlie Hayter planted the initial seed, asking if she’d ever want to go over to England, before then Exeter coach Susie Appleby followed up. It’s here where the inevitable eligibility questions start to arise for Flutey.

While in the UK she was invited to England’s Under-21 camp. She was also involved in New Zealand’s Under-18s pathway group last year and has chatted informally with NZR’s women’s high performance pathways manager Kendra Cocksedge about a beefed up Under-20s programme this year.

Another Maddie with Wellington roots, Feaunati, recently made the call to play for her country of birth, England, rather than New Zealand, and won the Women’s Rugby World Cup with the Red Roses last year. However, Flutey is non-committal at this stage.

 

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“All I want to do is play at the top level, internationally, at a World Cup and so I am lucky enough that I am eligible for both England and New Zealand, which is pretty cool, considering how great both teams are, but we’ll just have to see what happens.”

There’s also the complicating factor of her dad’s past life as a player with England and current life as a coach with New Zealand

“I can kind of never really escape that element of who dad has coached or played for so I feel like whatever happens is meant to be.”

Not that she wants to escape the family name; she wants to add to it.

“It’s not extra pressure at all, that’s never been put on me, but I want to continue that legacy, play how my dad did and do what he’s done,” Flutey said proudly. “He’s obviously a big drive for the reason I play rugby and now that he’s in women’s space, and I don’t know how my brothers would feel about this, but for me being the girl in my family who plays rugby, I’m pretty lucky because he gives it a lot of obviously attention.”

While dad is the driver behind her rugby, it’s mum Sarah who is the backbone for Flutey and her three brothers, and the reason she’ll be on shift at the café when she returns to Dunedin at the end of Aupiki, helping out with the new venture for the mum “who’s there for everything else”.

There’s plenty ahead of Flutey, who seems well equipped to take whatever comes her way in her stride. The next big step is already upon her – this weekend she’s been named to start at 10 for the struggling Chiefs Manawa, yet to win a game, against top of the table Matatu.

“We have a lot of belief in ourselves, we have each other’s backs, we know our game and we know what we need to do, so we’re putting in the work behind the scenes and everyone’s so committed to getting better each week and performing how we want to perform that it will come.”

Said with the spirit of youth and the mindset of a game driver.