Braxton Sorensen-McGee: from the only girl at the Howick Hornets to the Black Ferns' first 100-point year

On 31 October 2026, five days after her 20th birthday, Braxton Sorensen-McGee scored under the posts in Christchurch and then converted her own try. The seven points took her to 101 for the year, and she became the first Black Fern to score 100 Test points in a calendar year. Eighteen months earlier she had not played a Test. Before that she had been a league player from Howick who only picked up a rugby ball at high school, and before that a toddler who would run onto the field at her big brother's league trainings.

A league family from Howick

Braxton Tipesa Sorensen-McGee was born on 26 October 2006 and grew up in Auckland. She is Ngāti Wai. Her mother's side of the family is one of New Zealand's best-known rugby league families: five of its members have played for the Kiwis, according to Newsroom and RNZ. Sorensen-McGee has said she is not personally close to those players and wants to play league on her own terms.

League was her first game all the same. Her mother managed her older brother's team at the Howick Hornets, and from the age of two Braxton was at the trainings, jumping in whenever she could. When she was old enough to play she joined the Hornets under-7s as the only girl in the team, and she stayed the only girl right through the age grades. "I wasn't afraid to play my part," she told Suzanne McFadden of Newsroom in 2025, remembering the tackle-of-the-match and player-of-the-match awards that kept coming.

She tried football at intermediate, because her mother had been a goalkeeper, but her uncles talked her out of it. League took her further. She played for the New Zealand secondary schools side, Fetu Samoa under-16s, the Auckland Vulcans under-18s and the Counties Manukau Stingrays, and in 2022 she was New Zealand Rugby League's under-16 player of the year.

Auckland Girls' Grammar

Rugby union came late. Sorensen-McGee did not pick up the 15-a-side game until she reached Auckland Girls' Grammar School, where she became a fixture in the 1st XV and the school sevens team. She was soon a leader in the 1st XV, and for a time she played first five-eighth. She was moved to 10, she said, "because I was one of the oldest in my team". Fullback, though, was where she saw herself, because it gave her the most room to run.

Her club was College Rifles. In 2023, in Year 12 and still only 16, she was picked for the Auckland Storm squad for the Farah Palmer Cup. She became the starting fullback in a side full of Black Ferns, played seven games and scored three tries as Auckland won the title, beating Canterbury 39-27 in the final. She was named the Storm's rookie of the year.

In 2024, her last year at school, she played six more games for Auckland, five at fullback and one at first five, and scored 37 points as the side reached the semi-finals. That December she co-captained the New Zealand under-18 sevens team at the Global Youth Cup in Auckland. They lost their semi-final to the eventual champions, Japan, and finished third.

Choosing rugby

League came calling. The Warriors offered her a development contract in the NRL Women's Premiership, and she turned it down. A development deal would have stopped her playing in the Farah Palmer Cup, she explained. "At my age, I just want to play," she told Newsroom. She has kept the door to league open, playing for the Kotahitanga team at the Wāhine Tuakana women's tournament in 2024, and has spoken of wanting to wear the black jersey in three codes: sevens, fifteens and league.

Support came from the Tania Dalton Foundation, which gave her a three-year scholarship. Its scholarship manager, the former England fullback Paula George, became one of her loudest admirers. "She's a superstar in the making," George told Newsroom. "It's like there's a force field around her and she can slow down time."

The Blues, at 18

In 2025, her first year out of school, Sorensen-McGee joined the defending Aupiki champions, the Blues. She scored a try on debut against the Hurricanes Poua and was voted the fans' player of the match. Against Chiefs Manawa she went 60 metres down the touchline for a try in the corner, her boot hovering over the line as she escaped fullback Tenika Willison. She has said the senior players, among them Ruahei Demant and Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, told her to back herself. "Lou's knowledge around the game is pretty incredible," she said of Demant.

Then came the final against Matatū at Eden Park on 12 April 2025. The Blues trailed 12-0 early and 19-14 midway through the second half. In the 70th minute she intercepted a rushed Matatū pass and, by Adam Julian's account for New Zealand Rugby, outpaced two defenders on a 60-metre run to the line. The Blues won 26-19 and became the first team to defend the Aupiki title, and RNZ called her try the match-winner. "Just to run, don't stop," was all she had told herself, she said later. The Blues went on to beat the NSW Waratahs in the first trans-Tasman Champions Final. She finished her first Aupiki season with eight games and five tries.

A Black Fern at 18

Allan Bunting named her in the Black Ferns squad for the 2025 Pacific Four Series, and on 10 May 2025 she started at fullback against Australia at McDonald Jones Stadium in Newcastle. She scored twice: a stretch for the line just before halftime that the home crowd disputed, and a runaway try five minutes from time. She also gained 112 metres, the most of anyone on her team. The Black Ferns won 38-12, their 28th straight win over the Wallaroos.

A week later she scored again in a 27-27 draw with Canada in Christchurch, and she started the 79-14 win over the USA at North Harbour Stadium. In July she was named in the 33-strong squad for the World Cup in England.

The World Cup

Sorensen-McGee started on the right wing in the opening 54-8 win over Spain in York. Moved to fullback for the second pool game, against Japan in Exeter, she scored three tries and kicked four conversions for 23 points and was named player of the match. Back on the right wing against Ireland in Brighton, she scored three more as the Black Ferns won 40-0 and topped their pool. "She's elusive, instinctive and she can kick really well," Bunting said that week.

She scored twice more in the 46-17 quarter-final win over South Africa, once in the 34-19 semi-final loss to Canada in Bristol, and twice in the bronze final, a 42-26 win over France at Twickenham. Her 11 tries made her the tournament's top try-scorer, and her 69 points made her its top points-scorer, ahead of team-mate Renee Holmes (64) and Canada's Sophie de Goede (61), World Rugby recorded.

On the night of the final, World Rugby named her Women's 15s Breakthrough Player of the Year, ahead of team-mate Jorja Miller and Fiji's Josifini Neihamu. Asked what she would tell young players, she kept it simple. "Just give it a go," she said. "Be confident in yourself and back yourself."

In nine Tests in 2025 she scored 14 tries and 84 points. At the New Zealand Rugby Awards in December, aged 19, she was named both Black Ferns Player of the Year and New Zealand Age Grade Player of the Year.

Sevens

The sevens jersey came next. Coach Cory Sweeney named her for the opening rounds of the 2025-26 SVNS series, and she made her Black Ferns Sevens debut in Dubai at the end of November 2025, coming off the bench against France and kicking a conversion in a 24-21 win, the 350th of the team's World Series history. The Black Ferns Sevens went on to win the tournament, beating Australia 29-14 in the final and ending the Australians' run of 28 straight wins.

In March 2026 she re-signed with New Zealand Rugby until the end of 2027, with the sevens as her main focus and room to play fifteens. "I've been loving my first season with the Black Ferns Sevens," she said. Under the deal she was not part of the Pacific Four Series in April; her return to fifteens was planned through Aupiki and the O'Reilly Cup in August. RugbyPass reported that a concussion kept her out of two sevens tournaments during the season.

2026: the record year

She was back in blue for the start of the professional Aupiki season in June, scoring after five minutes and kicking six conversions in a 42-7 win over the Hurricanes Poua at Eden Park. In the last round she scored twice and kicked four goals in a 38-29 win over Matatū, and in the final in Christchurch the Blues beat Matatū 28-21 with an 80th-minute try for a third straight title.

Her return to Test rugby came in the O'Reilly Cup at Mount Smart Stadium on 22 August. She scored the first try inside four minutes and kicked eight conversions as the Black Ferns beat Australia 66-19. Her 21 points are the most by a Black Fern in a Test against Australia, one more than the 20 managed by Vanessa Cootes, Annaleah Rush, Selica Winiata and Katelyn Vaha'akolo, according to World Rugby's match records.

She started every Test from then on. In Johannesburg, in the Black Ferns' first Test on South African soil, she scored twice and kicked five conversions in a 52-20 win. She kicked four goals in Lyon, seven in Edinburgh and two in the 26-19 loss to England at Twickenham, then eight in the 81-12 win over France in Hamilton. In Whangārei, in the Black Ferns' 150th Test, she ran in a solo try from inside her own half and converted it.

Then came Christchurch. In the 18th minute, with the Black Ferns already ahead, she scored under the posts and converted, and New Zealand Rugby confirmed a new Black Ferns record for points in a season. By World Rugby's match records, the previous best for a calendar year was Kendra Cocksedge's 98 points in 2017. Sorensen-McGee added one more conversion and finished 2026 with 103 points from eight Tests: five tries and 39 conversions.

When World Rugby named its Women's 15s Dream Team of the Year, Sorensen-McGee was the fullback, one of five Black Ferns in the side alongside Kaipo Olsen-Baker, Maiakawanakaulani Roos, Ayesha Leti-I'iga and Sylvia Brunt.

What is next

Sorensen-McGee's contract runs to the end of 2027 with the sevens as her priority, and she has spoken of trying out for the sevens at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. The fifteens calendar for 2027 includes the Anzac Day Test against the Wallaroos in Brisbane and a home series against the British and Irish Lions Women in September. League remains on her list too. "It would be cool to play league," she told Newsroom in 2025. She has also thought about teaching young children one day, but for now, as she put it, she has enough on her plate.

Career at a glance

Provincial and 2025 figures are from rugbyhistory.co.nz; Test figures from World Rugby's match records, which match New Zealand Rugby's 101-point mark in Christchurch. Awards: World Rugby Women's 15s Breakthrough Player of the Year 2025; Black Ferns Player of the Year 2025; New Zealand Age Grade Player of the Year 2025; World Rugby Dream Team 2026.