1 July 2025

This year we celebrate 30 years of the Kiwi Ferns, a major milestone for women’s rugby league and the wider game here in Aotearoa. We look back on the Ferns’ rich history, three decades of resilience, pride, and passion that helped shape the women’s game into the thriving force it is today.

The New Zealand Women’s Rugby League Federation was officially registered and accepted by NZRL in February 1995. Just four months later, a squad of 23 trailblazers captained by Juanita Hall and coached by Janie Thompson, set off on a tour of Australia.

They returned home unbeaten, winning all seven matches including two Tests against Australia. That historic tour set the tone and a high standard for the Ferns, who quickly made their mark as the best women’s team in the world at that time.

The Ferns continued on an undefeated Test run through 1997 in Australia and 1998 in Great Britain, before their first-ever Test loss in 1999 against Australia.

In 2000, co-captains and ’95 originals Nadene Conlon and Nicole Presland led the Ferns to a confident 26-4 victory over hosts Great Britain, in the first-ever Women’s Rugby League World Cup Grand Final in Warrington.

Over the next eight years, the Ferns continued to dominate the global stage, taking out one-off Test matches, another successful Australia tour, and most impressively back-to-back World Cup titles in 2003 and 2008.

More recently, 2023 signalled a new era for the Kiwi Ferns. For the first time since the launch of the NRLW competition in 2018, the entire squad consisted of professional NRLW players including 12 debutants.

That year in the inaugural 2023 Pacific Championships, the new-look Ferns delivered an outstanding performance to upset Australia 12-6, ending a seven-year drought of losses to the World Champions.

Today, our pool of professional talent continues to expand, with 30% of current NRLW players proudly of New Zealand heritage. The future is bright for wāhine here in Aotearoa as the domestic women’s game also continues to flourish. In 2024 we saw over 7,700 registered female players, an 112% increase from 2022 when rugby league first returned post-COVID.

The next generation of Ferns is already emerging, ready to write the next chapter of women’s rugby league – only made possible by the Kiwi Ferns of 1995 and all those who followed, who laid the strong foundations for the women’s game here in Aotearoa.