Stacey Waaka
Stacey Jamie Aroha Kirsten Waaka is a New Zealand rugby league player who plays at for New Zealand Warriors in the NRLW.
She formerly played fifteen-a-side and seven-a-side rugby union, and was a member of the New Zealand Women's Sevens team and New Zealand Women's National Rugby Union team. Waaka was a member of the New Zealand Women's Sevens team which won gold medals at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. She was also a member of the New Zealand fifteen-a-side team which won the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup and the 2021 Women's Rugby World Cup. Following the Paris Olympics she spent the Sevens off-season playing rugby league during an injury-disrupted 2024 season with the Brisbane Broncos.
Early life
Waaka was born on 3 November 1995 in Papakura, New Zealand to Raewyn and Simon Waaka. She has four older siblings, Shannon, Bronson and Beaudein and was the only one born in New Zealand as her parents moved the family moved back and forth between Australia and Auckland several times. When she was one years old the family moved back to Australia, and lived in Melbourne for eight years. One Christmas, she and her brother Beaudein spent time with their grandmother Kiri on the farm and didn't want to leave. As a result, her parents decided to move back permanently in 2005 to farm in Ruatoki in the eastern Bay of Plenty.Her father had 17 siblings, and as a result Waaka has more than 70 first cousins, many of them resident in the area around Ruatoki.
Her father played rugby and so did her brothers, while her sister played netball and mother in her youth played athletics, gymnastics, tennis and netball.
in 2011, at the age of 15 Waaka was on her way home in a school bus near Ruatoki when it was hit from behind by an unladen truck. The impact was sufficient to throw her from her seat, and she came to lying in the aisle of the bus, on top of other children. Using her cellphone she called the police for help before assisting some of the injured children off the bus, including her niece and nephew. She then walked to a nearby Matariki Early Childhood Centre to telephone her mother before returning to the crash site where she helped other children. In all 36 people were injured with 28 taken to hospitals, many of them with broken bones. Waaka received lacerations to her legs which prevented her playing sports for a few months.
Rugby union career
By the age of 15 Waaka was a New Zealand touch youth international and promising netball player.While encouraged to consider playing rugby by friends and coaches at school she rejected the game as she had her heart set on representing New Zealand at netball. After she heard through ads on TV in 2012 for the "Go for Gold" programme that Sevens rugby was to be an Olympic sport, she realised she could have an opportunity to play rugby full-time. As a result, despite some concerns over tackling she decided to give rugby a go. At the age of 16 she was one of the 800 young women who attended the "Go for Gold" Sevens trials in 2012 organised to identify talent with the potential to represent New Zealand in the Sevens competition at the Rio Olympics. At the trial she attended she was put through various fitness, rugby skills and character assessment activities. However she wasn't prepared to commit to the Sevens as she wanted to enjoy high school. It wasn't until she began playing for the Waikato women's team in the 2014 Farah Palmer Cup that she was noticed in 2014 and was invited to attend a couple of Sevens training camps.
Waaka debuted for the fifteen-a-side New Zealand Women's rugby team in their game against Canada on 27 June 2015, the same year her brother Beaudein Waaka made his Rugby sevens debut for New Zealand.
In 2016, she was selected for the development squad for the women's sevens and made her international debut in that form of the game.
In 2017 Waaka was again selected for the Black Ferns fifteen-a-side New Zealand Women's rugby team and played in eight games during their victorious 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup campaign. That year she graduated from the University of Waikato in the Bachelor of Sport and Leisure Studies with a major in Sport Management.
She played four games in August and November 2018 for the fifteen-a-side New Zealand Women's rugby team.
With Portia Woodman out of commission since October 2018 as a result of an Achilles tendon injury Waaka filled her shoes to become the dominant try scorer during the 2018–19 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series season. She was also selected for four out of five Dream Teams and was also awarded two Impact Player of the Tournament titles. It was during this period that she acquired the nickname "The Smiling Assassin".
With the international seven series suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic she took the opportunity to play seven games for the Waikato team in the 2020 Farah Palmer Cup, held in September and November of that year.
2020 Tokyo Olympic Games
In July 2021, she was a member of the New Zealand team that won the gold medal in the women's event at the 2020 Summer Olympics.On 20 March 2022 she played a game for Chiefs Manawa against the Blues in the Super Rugby Aupiki.
Waaka was named in the Black Ferns Sevens squad for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. She won a bronze medal at the event. She later won a silver medal at the 2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens in Cape Town.
2021 Rugby World Cup
Waaka made the Black Ferns 32-player squad for the 2021 Rugby World Cup. She played in five games, scoring a try in the tense 25–24 semi-final clash with France.In the final against England she scored a try at the start of the second half and later made a skilled offload that allowed Ayesha Leti-I’iga to score in the 72nd minute. After incurring an ankle injury during this action she was forced to leave the field. The Black Ferns went on to claim their sixth Rugby World Cup title. For her efforts she was named player of the match.
The recovery from the injury delayed her return to sevens duty until the Hamilton tournament, which was the third in the 2022–23 season.
2023 Premier Rugby Sevens
In May 2023, Waaka announced she was going to play for Premier Rugby Sevens in the United States. Waaka signed with the New York Locals where she played alongside Black Fern teammates Manaia Nuku and Tenika Willson.Waaka and the Locals finished the 2023 PR7s season in second place after going 3–3 on the year. Waaka captained the Locals, totaling 15 points, 14 carries, 13 tackles, 4 steals, and 3 tries.
The Locals took second at the Eastern Conference Kickoff at Q2 Stadium in Austin, Tx. and the Eastern Conference Finals at Highmark Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pa. where New York punched their ticket to the PR7s Championship Tournament in Washington, D.C.
At the Championship, they defeated their Eastern Conference rival the Southern Headliners to advance to the title match. The Locals fell 21–10 to the Northern Loonies in the finals, ending the season in second place.
Return to New Zealand sevens duty
She returned to the New Zealand sevens team for the 2023–24 season and played in the first three tournaments before a calf injury forced her to miss the Vancouver and Los Angeles tournaments.Waaka announced in early March 2024 that after the Paris Olympics she had agreed to play rugby league for the Brisbane Broncos in the NRL Women's Premiership. As she is contracted to New Zealand Rugby through to 2026 she would remain available to play sevens as the respective codes' seasons didn't overlap.
During the pool play game against Great Britain at the Madrid tournament held on 31 May–2 June 2024, Waaka scored her one hundredth try in the seven series.
2024 Paris Olympics
On 20 June 2024 it was announced that she had been selected as a member of the New Zealand Women's Rugby Sevens team for the Paris Olympics. Waaka scored six tries over the course of the Olympic sevens competition to make her the third equal highest try scorer. One of her tries was in the final against Canada which was won by New Zealand 19–12 to give her back-to-back Olympic gold medals.Rugby league career
After arriving back in New Zealand from Paris on the morning of 2 August 2024 Waaka departed two days later to take up her rugby league contract with the Brisbane Broncos playing in the NRL Women's Premiership rugby league competition which was already underway, having started on 25 July. She had previously announced in early March 2024 that she was taking up rugby league after the Paris Olympics. As two years remain on her New Zealand Rugby contract she is still available to play sevens.Waaka scored six tries in her first six appearances before her debut season was bought to an end when after scoring a try in Brisbane Broncos’ 20–16 victory over the Cronulla Sharks on 14 September 2024 she had to leave the field at half time with what later turned out to be a fractured fibula in her right leg. As a result, she was unavailable for selection for both the New Zealand women's national rugby league team for their 2024 Rugby League Pacific Championship campaign and the New Zealand Sevens team for the first two tournaments of the 2024–2025 season. Despite her limited number of appearances Waaka's performance was sufficient to see her named in both the NRLW's Dally M Women Team of the Year and the Rugby League Players Association Women's Dream Team. She was also named the Brisbane Broncos’ NRLW Rookie of the Year.
Return from injury
Waaka initially thought it would take six to eight weeks to recover from her leg injury but it took longer, forcing her to miss the first two tournaments of the international sevens series in Dubai and Cape Town. She began light running over Christmas/New Year period. She missed the Perth tournament, instead opting to gain some match time by captaining the New Zealand Women's Development team at the Coral Coast Sevens tournament held on 16–18 January at Lawaqa Park in Sigatoka, Fiji. The team featured several national under 18 sevens representatives as well as Black Ferns contracted players Louise Blyde, Justine McGregor and Olive Watherstone.Fully fit she was named in New Zealand sevens team for the fourth tournament of the season held in Vancouver on 21–23 February 2025. She celebrated her return by scoring a total of nine tries over the course of the tournament. In July 2025, she was named in the Black Ferns squad to the Women's Rugby World Cup.