New Zealand women's national rugby league team
The New Zealand women's national rugby league team, also known as the Kiwi Ferns or New Zealand Kiwi Ferns, represents New Zealand in women's rugby league. They are administered by the New Zealand Rugby League.
New Zealand won the Women's [Rugby League World Cup] in 2000 [Women's Rugby League World Cup|2000], 2003 and 2008.
History
The Kiwi Ferns were formed in 1995.1995 New Zealand [women's rugby league tour of Australia|Touring Australia] in June and July 1995, the team won all seven games that they played. Two of the games were full internationals against Australia.
The First Test Match was held on 1 July 1995 at Lidcombe Oval in Sydney. New Zealand 18 defeated Australia 14. The Second Test was held on 8 July 1995 at Hawker Oval in Canberra. New Zealand 14 defeated Australia 6.
In 1997, New Zealand hosted Australia for two Test matches, winning both.
New Zealand hosted a 1998 tour by Great Britain, winning all three matches by comfortable margins, the score of 28 to 6 in the First Test being the closest.
During a Trans-Tasman series in 1999, New Zealand experienced their first defeat, a narrow 20-22 loss in the Second Test at Penrith. New Zealand won the third Test in Auckland to claim the series two-one.
New Zealand competed in the 2000 World Cup, beating Australia and Great Britain twice each to claim the inaugural title.
New Zealand remained undefeated in the 2000s until a one-off Test Match against Australia in 2009. During this period, the Kiwi Ferns won one-off matches in 2001 and 2002, all six matches in the 2003 World Cup to claim their second title, two matches in 2004, another in 2006, and all five matches in the 2008 World Cup to claim their third title as World Cup champions. The winning streak extended to 21 matches.
Coaches
Also see :Category:New Zealand women's national rugby league team coaches.The current coach of the New Zealand team is Ricky Henry, who replaced Justin Morgan in 2020. Morgan had been the coach since 2018.
Note:
- Last updated: 10 November 2025
Players
Current squad
The Kiwi Ferns squad for the 2025 Pacific Championships was announced on 7 October 2025.Jersey numbers in the table reflect selections for the
Players' ages are as at the date that the table was last updated, 9 November 2025.
Notes
- Eight squad members have previously played for Australasian based representative teams:
- * : Tufuga
- * Māori All Stars : Anderson, Biddle, King, McGregor, Parker, and Quinlan
- * New South Wales : Anderson and Parker
- * NSW City : Anderson, Parker and Tufuga
- * NRL All Stars : Parker
- * Australian Prime Minister's XIII: Clark
- Players unavailable due to injury include: Madison Bartlett, Jasmine Solia, and Brooke Talataina.
- Mya Hill-Moana missed the 2025 NRLW season due to pregnancy.
- Gayle Broughton was unavailable due to personal reasons.
- The team announcement listed an additional eight players as members of the wider squad: Jasmin Strange, Mackenzie Wiki, Matekino Gray, Moana Courtenay, Payton Takimoana, Tenika Willison, Trinity Tauaneai, and Martha Mataele. Mataele and Courtenay were selected for Tonga.
- On Monday 27 October 2025, Dragons forward Trinity Tauaneai was promoted from the wider squad to the main squad ahead of the Ferns clash with the Jillaroos on Sunday 2 November at Eden Park. She replaces Brianna Clark who was suspended for two Tests ruling her out for the remainder of the Pacific Championships.
- The NZRL announcement noted that Amber Hall was unavailable due to playing for Samoa instead. The Samoa squad announcement did not initially include Hall in their list 21 players. Hall had missed the 2025 [NRL Women's Premiership Grand Final|2025 NRLW Grand Final] due to a calf injury.
Competitive record
Head to head records
Notes:- Table last updated 10 November 2025. Share is the portion of "For" points compared to the sum of "For" and "Against" points.
Results
Nines
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| 31 Jan 2015 | 8–4 | 2015 Auckland Nines |  New Zealandmdashrlw-l|AUSUpcoming fixturesNew Zealand has qualified for the 2026 World Cup to be held in October-November 2026. All three of the Kiwi Fern's pool games have been scheduled within a multi-match game day. The second round match in Christchurch precedes a New Zealand men's team match. The third round match on the Queensland Gold Coast follows a women's match between Fiji and France and a men's match between New Zealand and Fiji.RecordsIndividual recordsThis section last updated 17 November 2024.The tally of tries, goals and points for this section is missing
Tries scored: 45 Goals kicked: 57 Points scored in a match: 40
Team recordsMargins and streaksBiggest winning margins
Biggest losing margins
Most consecutive wins
Most consecutive losses
Individual awardsPlayer of the YearA female Player of the Year award is included in the New Zealand Rugby League Awards.Rookie of the YearA female Rookie of the Year award has been included in the New Zealand Rugby League Awards since 2018.Past squads1990sThe Kiwi Ferns were formed in 1995.1995 Inaugural Kiwi Ferns Team
The First Test Match was held on 1 July 1995 at Lidcombe Oval in Sydney. New Zealand 18 defeated Australia 14. The Second Test was held on 8 July 1995 at Hawker Oval in Canberra. New Zealand 14 defeated Australia 6. Other matches on the tour were played against the following teams:
1998 Kiwi Ferns Team
1999 Kiwi Ferns Team
2000s2000 World Cup Kiwi Ferns Squad
2003 Kiwi Ferns World Cup Squad Sharlene Atai, Luisa Avaiki, Mere Baker, Elina Beets, Tafale Chan Ting, Nadene Conlon, Sarina Fiso, Aimee Gilbert, Marion Heather, Trish Hina, Honey Hireme, Annabelle Hohepa, Teasha-Lee Leka, Bodene Marino, Caroline Marsters, Lorina Papali'i, Rona Peters, Cynthia Ta'ala, Rachel White, Leah Witehira. 2010s2010 Kiwi Ferns TeamThe Kiwi Ferns team for the First Test against England was: Sarina Fiso; Sharlene Ata, Trish Hina, Karley Te Korua, Laura Mariu; Rona Peters, Josephine Leef; Sharnita Woodman, Ana Pereira, Cynthia Ta’ala, Honey Hireme, Maryanne Collins. Interchange: Ebony Low, Akehene Pereira, Maryanne Hemara, Kathleen Keremete. There were four changes to the seventeen for the Second Test, with Bridget Smith, Lorina Papali'i, Charmaine McMenamim and Alisha Moses playing in that match. 2014 Kiwi Ferns Team The Kiwi Ferns beat the Jillaroos 12 - 8 in a curtain-raiser match ahead of the Four Nations match between the Kangaroos and Samoa at the WIN Stadium in Wollongong, Australia. 2015 Kiwi Ferns Team The 2015 Anzac Test curtain-raiser match between the Ferns and the Jillaroos was initially to be played on 1 May but was postponed due to bad weather. The match commenced on 3 May at the Suncorp Stadium with the Jillaroos winning the match 22 - 14. |