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#Post#: 151243--------------------------------------------------
Black Ferns thriving in PWR – and it could come back to bite
England
DIR By: deadlyfrom5yardsout
Date: March 20, 2026, 7:04 am
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Liana Mikaele-Tu’u (Harlequins)and Maia Roos (Ealing
Trailfinders) on playing in England, working as ‘community
angels’ and playing against each other for the first time
Fiona Tomas
Women’s Sport Reporter
When Liana Mikaele-Tu’u spells it out, she makes no attempt to
hide her feelings. “We’re robbed of game time back home,” says
the New Zealand international. “I’ve never played anything other
than 10 games at club level in a single year.”
Across the table, Maia Roos, her Black Ferns team-mate and
long-time friend, nods. The pair, both World Cup winners in
2022, have been lapping up precious minutes in Premiership
Women’s Rugby this season – Mikaele-Tu’u at Harlequins and Roos
with Trailfinders Women, who are based in Ealing – and Telegraph
Sport has brought them together at a Richmond coffee shop as
they prepare to face each other in a crunch south-west London
derby this Friday night at the Stoop.
They are among eight Black Ferns who put pen to paper last
autumn amid a dawning realisation that their own domestic
league, Super Rugby Aupiki, would not begin until June this
year. After the World Cup, they were faced with a choice: find a
PWR team or go months without playing a single game of
competitive rugby.
“Everything felt a bit last minute after the World Cup,” Roos
says, which prompts a sigh from Mikaele-Tu’u, who adds: “There’s
always a big change after a World Cup cycle but we always find a
way. I pretty much had a day to make my decision to join Quins.”
It is hard to envisage a top men’s player scrambling around for
club rugby off the back of a record-breaking tournament. But
Mikaele-Tu’u and Roos are living embodiments of women’s players
determined to succeed despite a system, not because of it.
“I don’t think I fully realised how isolated we are and what
we’re missing, in terms of exposure and that back home, we’re
not getting enough game time,” Mikaele-Tu’u says. “I’ve really
enjoyed having game time in the PWR, mixing with Scottish,
Welsh, Irish players and getting that exposure. It was pretty
scary because we’ve been around the same environments for most
of our careers.”
For Mikaele-Tu’u and Roos, that could not ring truer. They have
been practically inseparable since they began playing for the
Auckland-based College Rifles, before representing the city’s
Aupiki side, Blues, at provincial level. They even worked as
“community angels” together at Roos’ former high school in
Auckland before professionalism called. They dissolve into fits
of laughter at the mention of the bizarre job title.
“We had to make sure that kids were going to class and if they
weren’t we’d have to talk to them, understand what was
happening, and push them on to the school’s pastoral care
leader,” laughs Roos. Mikaele-Tu’u chips in: “You wouldn’t
believe the number of times I’ve had to describe what a
community angel is. That was the year we got our first Black
Ferns contracts… and then we had to drop the job!”
The duo were part of New Zealand’s disastrous northern tour in
2022, when they lost to England and France as the Black Ferns
fell to their lowest ebb. Six months later, under All Blacks
guru Wayne Smith, they won a home World Cup at Eden Park. After
the record-breaking success of England’s own World Cup win last
year, do they believe New Zealand, which will host next year’s
inaugural women’s Lions tour, truly capitalised on their 2022
success?
“I’m very hopeful that our people come and fill the stadiums
because after the 2022 World Cup we had a bit of a drought in
the crowds,” says Mikaele-Tu’u. “But bringing the Lions tour to
New Zealand will be really exciting for our game.”
It remains to be seen whether the swarm of Black Ferns gaining
experience in English club rugby comes back to bite the Lions
next year, or even the Red Roses at the next World Cup in 2029.
Mikaele-Tu’u and Roos have both immersed themselves in their
respective clubs, with Roos speaking highly of pivotal England
centre Meg Jones. “She’s one of the most welcoming girls on our
team,” says Roos, who became the youngest player to captain the
Black Ferns in 2023. “Getting to know her, along with the
Scotland and Welsh girls, has been great. Meg is so skilful. I’m
in awe of her skill-set in training.”
Both ball-wrecking additions to their respective packs in the
PWR, they have been enriched by the set-piece orientated style
of play that has become synonymous with the Red Roses in recent
years, as well as the evolving rivalries within the league. “I
love the diversity of the PWR,” says Roos. “There’s real
competition every week. Each team has their own playing style,
especially in the set-piece for me as a lock, and that’s been
something I’ve really enjoyed: adjusting our game plan to find a
way through them.”
For Mikaele-Tu’u, the whole experience has given her food for
thought. “I would love to see a match-up between a Super Rugby
Aupiki and PWR team,” she says. “The talent in New Zealand is
amazing, but we’re just not exposed enough to different styles.
We don’t get international players coming to New Zealand. We’re
purely just local New Zealand talent, apart from a few
Australians. I would love more international players to come
over to Aupiki. There are players here who have said they’d love
to explore it and I’m encouraging them. They would love it. Joy
is very much a value that we instil in our rugby back home.”
Along with their England-based New Zealand peers, they will head
back at the end of this month to join the Black Ferns and
prepare for their Pacific Four series – the side’s first
competition under new head coach Whitney Hansen, daughter of
Steve, a totemic figure in New Zealand rugby.
But first, there is the small matter of going up against each
other in a local derby, with both London sides in the hunt for a
play-off spot. “This will be our first time ever that we’ve been
on opposite teams,” says Mikaele-Tu’u. “We’ve played in every
single team together back in New Zealand – club, provincial,
Super Rugby, even in trial games we’ve not had to play each
other. But there’s a first time for everything.”
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