Ayesha Leti-I'iga: the Porirua flyer who scored the try that won the 2022 World Cup

With less than ten minutes left in the 2022 World Cup final at Eden Park, Theresa Fitzpatrick kicked ahead, Stacey Fluhler gathered and, as she fell, flicked the ball up to the wing. Ayesha Leti-I'iga ran in for her second try of the night, the Black Ferns led England 34-31, and that was how it finished. After every try, she has said, she kisses her wrist on the way back to the restart, close to where she writes her mother's name before each game. Four years on, Leti-I'iga has scored 27 Test tries, come back from a ruptured knee ligament and, in 2026, been named on the wing in World Rugby's Dream Team of the Year.

Porirua, and a name on her arm

Ayesha Asolupe Leti-I'iga was born on 3 January 1999. World Rugby's records give Tauranga as her birthplace, and she grew up in Porirua, where she went to Porirua College. Her mother died in 2009, when Ayesha was 11, and she was raised largely by her grandparents.

She has spoken openly about what her mother still means to her. Before each game, the New Zealand Rugby Museum profile records, she straps her arm and writes her mother's name on it, and when she scores she kisses her wrist on the way back, because "it feels like Mum is running beside me". In 2021 she told 1News: "I guess I know she's always with me."

First touch, first try

Rugby was not the plan. She was a sprinter at Porirua College, and her grandparents were not keen on her playing because she was small. It was an aunt, a prop for Oriental Rongotai who coached the Porirua College girls, who brought her into the game. In 2015, aged 16, she scored a try with her first touch of the ball in her first match, clubrugby.nz has reported.

Her grandfather became her biggest supporter. "Rugby is now what me and my granddad bond over," she told Newsroom in 2018. "He acts like my own personal coach." He woke her for 5am runs, which she says made her cry at the time, and 1News reported that he paid her $10 a try and sounded his car horn every time she scored. After one seven-try game, she recalled, he told her she was going to make him broke. His advice, she said, was to "play with your heart".

"My grandfather taught me you get nowhere without hard work," she told the museum profile.

The Pride's record-breaker

Later in 2015 she made her debut for the Wellington Pride in the Farah Palmer Cup, still a schoolgirl, and again scored with her first touch. Her team-mates nicknamed her "Baby". She was the competition's top try-scorer in 2018, Newsroom reported, and in 2019 she ran in 12 tries, which the museum profile lists as a Wellington record for a season.

Her coach that year remembers one of those games well. The Pride were 20 points down at halftime against Manawatū when coach Ross Bond gave his players a simple instruction. "It's simple, give it to Ayesha," he told the museum profile. She scored five tries, another Pride record, and Wellington won by 20. Her 50th try for Wellington came from a 75-metre run in a 41-34 win over Bay of Plenty.

She played 43 games for the Pride from 2015 to 2022 and scored 56 tries, a Wellington record, according to clubrugby.nz and rugbyhistory.co.nz.

Ories

Her club numbers are bigger still. Playing for Oriental Rongotai, known as Ories, she scored 41 tries in 13 games in 2018 and once scored eight in a match against Avalon in 2020, according to the museum profile, which also counts 30 hat-tricks. She was Wellington's women's club player of the year in 2017 and 2018.

She still goes back. On 2 May 2026 at Kilbirnie Park she came off the bench at halftime against Pōneke with Ories leading 19-12, and scored four tries in a 56-17 win. The second was her 200th try for the club, in her 82nd appearance. "I'm not interested in personal accolades," she told clubrugby.nz. "At Ories, I'm back where I started, playing with my best friends."

A Black Fern at 19

Glenn Moore called her into the Black Ferns for their 2018 tour of the United States and France. Asked by Newsroom whether she had raced her new team-mates in sprint drills yet, she laughed: "No we haven't, but if we did I would win!" Her rugby heroes, she said, were Portia Woodman and Selica Winiata.

She made her Test debut off the bench against the USA at Soldier Field in Chicago on 3 November 2018. The museum profile records that she had one try ruled out for a forward pass before scoring with the last play of the game, a 67-6 win. She started both Tests in France, in Toulon and Grenoble.

In 2019 she played every game of the Women's Rugby Super Series in San Diego, scoring the clinching try in the opening 35-20 win over Canada and starting the 28-13 win over England. In Perth that August she ran in from halfway to finish a 47-10 win over Australia.

She was not part of the Black Ferns' 2020 domestic series, but returned for the 2021 tour of England and France, playing three of the four Tests. The tour brought four defeats, but RNZ's Jamie Wall commented that she, Maiakawanakaulani Roos and Liana Mikaele-Tu'u "left with their reputations enhanced". In a warm-up match against England's under-20s she scored four tries.

The best in the world

Wayne Smith took over in 2022, and his first Test, against Australia in Tauranga, brought two tries for Leti-I'iga. She scored a hat-trick against the USA in Whangārei as the Black Ferns won the Pacific Four Series, and two more against Australia in Christchurch in August.

A calf injury then kept her out of the first two pool games of the home World Cup. When she returned, against Scotland in Whangārei, Smith was clear about his view. "For me, Ayesha was the best player in the world," he said of her Pacific Four form, as reported by 1News. "She was unbelievable, outstanding." Her reply was typically modest. "True or not, that gives me confidence," she said. She scored in that 57-0 win, started the quarter-final against Wales and came off the bench in the 25-24 semi-final win over France.

In the final on 12 November 2022, in front of more than 42,000 at Eden Park, she was again among the replacements and came on in the first half. Her first try came as she ran through open space after an England maul try. Her second, from Fluhler's offload, put the Black Ferns ahead for good and ended England's run of 30 straight Test wins.

Hurricanes Poua

She was part of the first Hurricanes Poua squad when Super Rugby Aupiki began in 2022 and re-signed for 2023. To the end of 2025 she had played 12 games for the Poua and scored six tries, according to rugbyhistory.co.nz.

Wins have been rare for the Poua. When they beat Chiefs Manawa 34-29 in June 2026, New Zealand Rugby reported, it was their first win since March 2024 and only the fifth in their history. The report named Leti-I'iga among the Black Ferns who were tireless that day. The Poua won their last four games of the season, and in the final round, against Chiefs Manawa at Maidstone Park, she scored twice, the first from an interception near halfway with her side trailing 19-14. The Poua won 47-33, their highest score in the competition, though it was not quite enough to take them into the final.

The knee

In July 2023 she ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in her knee. She played no Tests in 2023, missed the 2024 Aupiki competition, and went almost two years between Tests.

She came back through club rugby, playing for Ories in the 2024 Wellington women's club final, and was named for the Black Ferns' 2024 northern tour. Before the Test against England at Twickenham the team was received at Buckingham Palace, where Leti-I'iga asked King Charles for a hug, a moment that went viral on social media. "It was pretty normal for me, but not for the King," she said. "I felt like he needed the hug more than me." Coach Allan Bunting said it reflected the team. "They are who they are no matter where they go," he said.

Leti-I'iga had set herself the goal of making the match-day 23 and was surprised to be named to start on the right wing. The Black Ferns lost 24-12 on 14 September 2024. At the WXV tournament in Canada that followed she scored against England in a 49-31 defeat at Langley, and against France in a 39-14 win in Vancouver.

World Cup bronze

In 2025 she scored twice against Australia in Newcastle and twice more in the 27-27 draw with Canada in Christchurch. At the World Cup in England she started the opening game against Spain in York and scored two tries in a 54-8 win, then came off the bench against Ireland, against South Africa in the quarter-final and against Canada in the 34-19 semi-final defeat in Bristol. The Black Ferns finished third.

Dream Team

Under Whitney Hansen in 2026 she played nine Tests and scored six tries. Two came on Anzac Day on the Sunshine Coast, where a 40-5 win over Australia sealed the Pacific Four title for the third time in four years. She scored in the 66-19 win over Australia in Auckland, scored at Twickenham as England won 26-19 with a late interception, and scored twice in the 81-12 win over France in Hamilton.

When World Rugby's panel named its Women's 15s Dream Team of the Year in November, she was one of five Black Ferns selected, on the wing, alongside Kaipo Olsen-Baker, Maiakawanakaulani Roos, Sylvia Brunt and Braxton Sorensen-McGee.

Style and standing

Opponents have struggled to explain what to do about her. "She's a pocket rocket," the Canterbury and Black Ferns midfielder Grace Brooker told the museum profile, adding that a fullback facing her could only get down and hang on. Mason Malagamaali'i, who coached her at Ories, spoke to clubrugby.nz of her "God-gifted talent" and of a player who plays club rugby whenever she can.

She describes her job in simpler terms. "It's a dream job," she told the museum profile. She also says she does not have a favourite try, because they are all team tries.

What is next

Leti-I'iga turns 28 in January. The Black Ferns play the Wallaroos at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Anzac Day 2027, and then host the British and Irish Lions Women in three Tests: Auckland on 11 September, Wellington on 18 September and Christchurch on 25 September. The middle Test will be played in the city where her Pride career began.

Career at a glance

Provincial and Super Rugby figures to the end of 2025 are from rugbyhistory.co.nz. Test figures are from World Rugby's match records and New Zealand Rugby team lists; the New Zealand Rugby profile lists 40 matches, which includes one non-Test game. World Rugby's records list her 2018 debut as a start; we have followed the museum profile and Wikipedia, which say she came off the bench. Awards: World Rugby Women's 15s Dream Team of the Year 2026.