Ariana Bayler: the Waihi halfback who came back from three ruptured ACLs to wear the black jersey

Ariana Bayler grew up in Waihi wanting to be an All Black. She first heard of the Black Ferns as a teenager, watching highlights of their 2010 World Cup win on the television news. Since then, by way of three ruptured anterior cruciate ligaments and more than 60 games for Waikato, the halfback has ten Tests to her name, was part of the squad that won the World Cup at Eden Park in 2022, and in 2026 returned to the Black Ferns after almost three years away. The NZ Rugby Museum profile of her opens by calling her "a triumph of persistence".

Waihi and the road to Hamilton

Bayler was born in Waihi on 14 December 1996. There were few chances for girls to play rugby at Waihi College, and on the suggestion of a teacher from Morrinsville she joined the University club in Hamilton. In those days the University women played in the Auckland competition, so every second weekend meant a trip north as well. The club finished second in 2013 and won the competition in 2014.

The travel fell on her family. "Mum would wake up at four in the morning and we'd drive to Hamilton," she told the museum's Adam Julian. Her mother would then go to work, Bayler would go to school, and they would repeat the trip in the afternoon, sometimes four times a week. To ease the load she spent her final year of school at Hamilton Girls' High School. Across sevens and fifteens the school team won 31 games in a row and both national titles, outscoring its opponents 1391-58.

Waikato at 16

She was good enough, switching between halfback, first five and fullback, to make the Waikato team in Year 12 in 2013, aged 16. Kerry Geertson's rugbyhistory.co.nz records six games that first season, five of them at fullback. In 2014 she played nine, four of them at first five, as Waikato reached the final of the national women's provincial competition, losing to Auckland in New Plymouth. "I played first-five and have fond memories of that season," she said.

Three knees

Then the injuries began. In 2015, during a university pre-season, the ball bounced out of a scrum, she went back to collect it, tried to step a defender and her knee popped out. In 2016 she went to Japan with a Waikato sevens team, chased a kick-off, tried to change direction with the catcher and the knee went again. The third rupture came at a sevens tournament in 2018, again while stepping. Two of the three were in her left knee, one in her right. "Perhaps I should just run straight," she said later.

She played no provincial rugby in 2015, 2016 or 2019, by rugbyhistory.co.nz's records, and she has talked about the unhappy moments during her recoveries. What she learned, she told the museum, was that "if you really want something you have to do everything you can". In between, she scored three tries for Waikato in 2018, one of them in a 45-14 win over Auckland.

In 2016, with Reuben Samuels, she helped start the Hamilton Old Boys women's team, the club New Zealand Rugby lists her as selected from. Hamilton Old Boys won the Waikato senior competition in 2021.

The black jersey

Bayler came back in 2020 for eight games with Waikato, a season that ended with an extra-time loss to Canterbury in the Farah Palmer Cup final. In November 2020 she played for the Probables in a Black Ferns trial and for the New Zealand Barbarians against the Black Ferns. On 1 May 2021 she played off the bench for the Chiefs when they beat the Blues 39-12 at Eden Park in the first women's Super Rugby match played in New Zealand.

A few months later she was named for the Black Ferns' northern tour of England and France. On 31 October 2021 at Sandy Park in Exeter, in the Black Ferns' 100th Test, she came off the bench to replace Kendra Cocksedge, eight years after her first-class debut. England won 43-12. "I got a little bit light headed when I was summoned for my debut," she said. It was only eight minutes, she added, but "to run out and achieve the dream of playing for New Zealand was surreal."

She replaced Cocksedge in all four Tests of the tour, in Exeter, Northampton, Pau and Castres. All four were lost, but she said the "huge crowds" and the English and French style of play helped her understand her own game. "I'm quite a physical nine," she said. "I really back the speed of my pass." Without her and their other Black Ferns, Waikato won their first Farah Palmer Cup title that season, beating Canterbury 22-20 in the final in Christchurch on 9 October 2021.

World Cup year

In 2022 she was in Chiefs Manawa's first Super Rugby Aupiki squad and played three games as the Chiefs won the inaugural title, sealed by a 35-0 win over the Blues. She was named in the Black Ferns squad for the Pacific Four Series in June, recalled for the O'Reilly Cup in August, and on 27 August at Adelaide Oval made her first Test start, at halfback in a 22-14 win over Australia.

Wayne Smith picked her in his 32-player World Cup squad. For the pool match against Wales at Waitakere Stadium on 16 October she started at No 9, with Cocksedge among the replacements, and the Black Ferns won 56-12. In the quarter-final against Wales in Whangārei she came off the bench in a 55-3 win. She was named among the replacements for the semi-final against France and the final against England at Eden Park, but by New Zealand Rugby's records did not get on in either. The Black Ferns won the final 34-31 in front of 42,579 people, and in December the squad stood on the steps of Parliament with the trophy.

Waiting

Cocksedge retired at the end of 2022, opening up the No 9 jersey. In 2023 she spent a season with the Blues in Aupiki, playing five games, but injuries disrupted her year, this time a niggling Achilles. When new head coach Allan Bunting named his Pacific Four squad she was left out.

"It's always hard to hear but it was all above board," she told the NZ Herald, adding with a laugh that at least there were "no knee injuries, thank God". She went back to the Farah Palmer Cup, where she added goal-kicking to her game, and was recalled as one of three halfbacks for the end of the 2023 season. She played once, off the bench in the 18-17 loss to France at Sky Stadium in Wellington on 21 October, in the WXV1 tournament.

That was her eighth Test, and for almost three years it was her last. Back with Chiefs Manawa from 2024, she was on the bench for the 2024 Aupiki final, lost 24-18 to the Blues at Eden Park, and played five more games for the Chiefs in 2025, scoring a try. In the Farah Palmer Cup she played eight games and scored two tries in 2024 and six games in 2025, mostly at first five, as Waikato won back-to-back Premiership titles, beating Canterbury 27-25 in the 2024 final and 19-13 in 2025.

The recall

When Whitney Hansen began her time as Black Ferns head coach in 2026, Bayler was among the 41 players invited to the February training camp in Wellington and then in the wider training group that stayed in camp when the Pacific Four squad was named.

In the Aupiki season that followed she scored two tries for Chiefs Manawa, both against Matatū, and kicked seven conversions, 24 points in all by Wikipedia's tally and eighth on the competition's scoring list. She was not in the 31-player Black Ferns squad named on 10 August for the rest of the year.

Then Tara Turner injured a hamstring. In the week of the O'Reilly Cup Test against Australia at Mt Smart Stadium, Bayler was called into the squad as injury cover and named on the bench in No 21. NZR noted that she was returning to the black jersey for the first time in almost three years. On 22 August the Black Ferns beat Australia 66-19 with ten tries.

The call came again in late October. Turner was concussed in Whangārei, and Bayler came back into the squad for the final Test of the season, against France at One NZ Stadium in Christchurch on 31 October. She came off the bench as the Black Ferns won 36-7 to complete a three-Test home sweep and a season of ten wins from a record 11 Tests. It was her tenth Test.

Standing

The museum profile describes her as a key figure in the resurgence of women's rugby in Waikato, where she helped start a club team in 2016 and has played in three provincial title-winning seasons. Of how she handles setbacks once a match starts, she told the museum: "Once I'm in game mode everything is gone."

What is next

Bayler turns 30 in December. The Black Ferns open 2027 against the Wallaroos at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Anzac Day, after the first Anzac Day Bledisloe Cup Test, and host the first British and Irish Lions Women's tour in September, with Tests in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. No squad for 2027 has been named.

Career at a glance

Test figures are New Zealand Rugby's (testCaps 10). World Rugby's team lists show 12 because they include the 2022 semi-final and final, when she was named on the bench but did not play.