Elinor-Plum King: from Rippa Rugby in Ongaonga to World Rugby's Breakthrough Player of the Year

After the Black Ferns beat France 36-7 in Christchurch on 31 October 2026, the team's openside flanker was handed a surprise on the field: World Rugby's Women's 15s Breakthrough Player of the Year award. Ten weeks earlier Elinor-Plum King had not played a Test. She had started all seven since, been named player of the match in her second, and finished a year in which she also won Matatū's top award. Her story starts in a Central Hawke's Bay settlement of about 150 people, where she began playing Rippa Rugby at the age of four.

Ongaonga

Elinor-Plum King, known to most people as Plum, was born on 1 June 2004, according to her Matatū profile, and grew up in Ongaonga, about 20 kilometres from Waipawa and Waipukurau. Hawke's Bay Today reported in August 2026 that she started Rippa Rugby there at four.

In 2016 she was one of two girls in the Central Hawke's Bay team at the Ross Shield, the Hawke's Bay primary schools tournament, held that year in Dannevirke. She played all five games and was given the Parents' Cup as the parents' choice for player of the tournament. Hawke's Bay Today reported that coaches had sometimes needed convincing that her effectiveness outweighed her size.

Napier Girls' and Manukura

She wanted to focus on rugby from the start, and because her local school did not have a girls' team she went to Napier Girls' High School as a boarder. After a year there she trialled for Manukura School in Palmerston North and started there in Year 10, boarding with a school family.

Manukura's girls' rugby programme was young when she arrived. RugbyPass has reported that she was in the school's first team to reach the national Top Four, in 2018, won a national under-15 sevens title in 2019 and captained the First XV in 2021. One of her coaches there was the former Black Fern Kristina Sue. King has always played flanker.

The Manawatū Cyclones

She made her Farah Palmer Cup debut for Manawatū in 2021, her last year at school. Manawatū won the Championship that season, beating Hawke's Bay 55-12 in the final. They lost the 2023 Championship final 32-29 to Northland, then won the title again in 2024 with a 33-3 win over Otago, and in 2025, promoted to the Premiership, they reached the semi-finals.

King played 32 games for the Cyclones from 2021 to 2025 and scored eight tries, according to rugbyhistory.co.nz, which lists her clubs as Feilding Old Boys Oroua and Freyberg Old Boys. RugbyPass counts 22 wins in those 32 games. In 2025 she was picked for the Black Ferns XV, the national development side, and toured South Africa.

Hurricanes Poua

Her first two seasons of Super Rugby Aupiki were with Hurricanes Poua in 2024 and 2025. She played six games in each season and scored three tries in all, according to rugbyhistory.co.nz.

Matatū

For 2026 she moved south to Matatū, and her first game for them was one to remember. On the opening day of the season, in front of a record crowd of 11,793 at Christchurch's new One NZ Stadium, she scored three tries, in the 21st, 70th and 73rd minutes, as Matatū beat Chiefs Manawa 52-26. New Zealand Rugby reported that it was the first time Chiefs Manawa had conceded 50 points in an Aupiki match and that King was only the second Matatū player to score a hat-trick, after Chey Robins-Reti. She was also in the competition's top ten that day for carries and defenders beaten.

Over the season she ranked second in the competition for tackles, RugbyPass reported. Matatū topped the table at halfway and hosted the final in Christchurch, where King started at openside. The Blues won it 28-21 with a try in the final minute.

At the club's awards night in July, King was named Matatū's Aoraki Player of the Year, its highest individual honour. Hawke's Bay Today reported that the citation noted her humble nature and her "relentless work ethic".

A Black Fern

In August Whitney Hansen named her in a 31-strong Black Ferns squad. She was one of four players from Hawke's Bay in it, along with Maia Davis, Liana Mikaele-Tu'u and Mo'omo'oga Palu. RugbyPass has reported that when the call came to tell her she had made the team, she did not recognise the number and let it ring.

A week before the first Test of the second half of the season, the Black Ferns played their annual trial against the Black Ferns XV in Upper Hutt. King scored a hat-trick in a 62-19 win, and New Zealand Rugby reported that it was enough to persuade Hansen to give her the No 7 jersey against Australia.

She made her Test debut on 22 August 2026 at Go Media Stadium in Auckland, alongside fellow debutants Amarante Sititi and Shyrah Tuliau-Tua'a. She played the full 80 minutes and led the Black Ferns with 16 successful tackles, as well as forcing two turnovers, New Zealand Rugby reported, as the Black Ferns won 66-19. Hansen said beforehand that King had worked exceptionally hard over three years to earn her chance.

Player of the match in Johannesburg

Two weeks later the Black Ferns played their first Test on South African soil, against the Springbok Women at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg. It was a difficult afternoon, with four New Zealand yellow cards, but King scored two tries and was named player of the match in only her second Test. The Black Ferns won 52-20.

She started at openside in every Test that followed bar one: the 28-14 win over France in Lyon, the 66-14 win over Scotland in Edinburgh, where she scored again, the 26-19 loss to England at Twickenham, the 81-12 win over France in Hamilton and the 36-7 win in Christchurch. She was not in the side for the second Test against France, in Whangārei.

Breakthrough Player of the Year

World Rugby's shortlist for the Breakthrough award also included France's Pauline Barrat, Australia's Amelia Whitaker and Bella Vogel of the USA. King was presented with the trophy in Christchurch, while her team-mate Kaipo Olsen-Baker received the Player of the Year award. World Rugby chair Brett Robinson said King had made "a remarkable impression in her first year on the international stage".

The award put her in good company. Braxton Sorensen-McGee had won it for New Zealand the year before.

Off the field

King finished school in 2021 and has since completed a science degree at Massey University, Hawke's Bay Today reported, though rugby is now her focus.

What is next

She will be 22 when the Black Ferns play the Wallaroos at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Anzac Day 2027, and 23 when they host the British and Irish Lions Women in three Tests: Auckland on 11 September, Wellington on 18 September and Christchurch on 25 September.

Career at a glance

Provincial and Super Rugby figures to the end of 2025 are from rugbyhistory.co.nz; 2026 Matatū figures are from Wikipedia's season record. Test figures are from World Rugby's match records and New Zealand Rugby team lists. World Rugby's records give her date of birth as 6 January 2004; we have followed her Matatū profile. Awards: World Rugby Women's 15s Breakthrough Player of the Year 2026; Matatū Aoraki Player of the Year 2026.