Maia Joseph: the medical student who pressed pause to become the Black Ferns' halfback

In April 2024 Maia Joseph was driving home from Matatū training in Lincoln when her phone rang. It was Allan Bunting, the Black Ferns coach, offering her a first full-time contract. "Bunts called and I pulled over," she said. She was three years into a medical degree and less than two years past tearing two ligaments in a knee, and she put the degree on hold. By the end of 2026 Maia Joseph had 27 Tests at halfback, a World Cup bronze medal and a Farah Palmer Cup player of the year award won in a season of four games. This is the story of how she got there.

Pōneke, Dunedin and the family game

Maia Joseph was born in May 2002 into one of New Zealand rugby's best-known families. Her father, Jamie Joseph, played 86 games for Otago, played Test rugby for the All Blacks and for Japan, coached the Highlanders to the 2015 Super Rugby title and coached Japan from 2016. The family moved around for his work, and Maia started in the under-5s at the Pōneke club in Wellington. As a child, 1News reported, she dreamed of being "the first girl All Black".

She grew up in Dunedin, played junior rugby for the Southern club and went to Columba College. She also played touch, well enough to make junior New Zealand touch teams and to represent New Zealand in the sport. Her father, by her account, never pushed rugby talk on her. "He waited for me to go to him," she told 1News, and when she did, the advice was mostly about the mental side of the game: missing selection, coming back from injury.

"She never looked out of place," Jamie Joseph said of her junior years.

University and the Spirit

In 2020, aged 18 and in her last year at Columba, she was the halfback in the University side that reached the Dunedin women's club final, and she was named in the Otago Spirit squad. She made her Farah Palmer Cup debut that year, mostly off the bench, in a rejigged competition.

By 2021 she was a University of Otago health sciences student and a regular in the Otago side, which was playing in the Premiership. Coach Scott Manson watched her add a box kick to her game during that season. "She has been outstanding," he told the Otago Daily Times. "She is so diligent in her craft." Joseph's own view was more modest. "My kicking game has been a big focus for me this year," she said. Otago spent that season fighting relegation, and by 2022 they were back in the Championship.

Joseph had started out at halfback, but from 2022 Otago used her at first five-eighth, and she wore 10 in every game for the Spirit over the next two seasons.

A medal from four games

In 2022 she was in the Chiefs Manawa squad for the first Super Rugby Aupiki season and came off the bench once for the side that won the inaugural title. Back with Otago, she played four games at first five and then tore the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in her knee, ending her season.

Four games were enough. The Fiao'o Fa'amausili Medal goes to the player with the most votes from match commentators across the Farah Palmer Cup season, and in December 2022 it went to Joseph, ahead of finalists Luka Connor of Bay of Plenty and Charmaine Smith of Northland. The Otago Daily Times called it a remarkable effort given how little she had played.

The injury kept her out of Super Rugby in 2023, but she was back for Otago that year, playing six games at first five and scoring a try, and she also played for the Black Ferns XV, kicking three conversions. During the first WXV, at home late in 2023, she trained with the Black Ferns, and assistant coach Tony Christie took note. "She's not shy on hard work, really knowledgeable about the game," he said later. "Although smaller by stature, she definitely doesn't lack any intent in there."

Matatū and the No 9 jersey

In 2024 Joseph moved to Christchurch for a medical placement and joined Matatū, who moved her back to halfback. She played six games in her first season and was named the club's rookie of the year. The Black Ferns wanted the same thing, the Otago Daily Times reported: to see her develop into a world-class No 9. Christie pointed to "an excellent kicking game" and her quick service to forwards and backs. Joseph was happy to go back to her roots while "keeping 10 ticking on in the background," as she put it.

Then came the phone call in Lincoln. She was one of five players to receive a first full-time contract in the 2024 squad of 40, and the first people she rang were her parents. Her father, by then head of rugby at the Highlanders, admitted the moment was a little complicated for a coach who always urged his players to commit to rugby. "She's a 100% kind of girl," he said. Her Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery at the University of Otago went on hold.

Black Fern number 258

Joseph made her Test debut on 11 May 2024, starting at halfback against the USA in Hamilton, a 57-5 win in the Pacific Four Series. She kept the No 9 jersey for most of the year and played in all eight of the Black Ferns' Tests in 2024, six of them as a starter: the 19-22 loss to Canada in Christchurch, the 62-0 win over Australia in Brisbane, the first Black Ferns Test at Twickenham and the WXV campaign in Canada.

In 2025 she started against Australia in Newcastle and in the 27-27 draw with Canada in Christchurch, and was picked for the World Cup in England. A hamstring niggle before the opening match against Spain kept her out of most of the pool stage. She made her World Cup debut off the bench against Japan in Exeter, then, coming on again against Ireland in Brighton, finished an 80-metre team try after the final hooter to complete a 40-0 win. "In the moment it was pretty amazing," she said.

Her first World Cup start came in the quarter-final against South Africa in Exeter. "I've got a long pass so that can help us get around them," she said beforehand, and in the match she charged down a South African clearance from a five-metre scrum for Theresa Setefano to score, and kicked ahead early in the second half to set up the position for one of Kaipo Olsen-Baker's two tries. The Black Ferns won 46-17. She came off the bench in the 19-34 semi-final loss to Canada in Bristol and in the 42-26 win over France at Twickenham that brought the bronze medal.

Finals and a fast start

With Matatū, Joseph started at halfback in the 2025 Aupiki final at Eden Park, lost 26-19 to the Blues. In 2026 she scored in the opening-round 52-26 win over Chiefs Manawa, flashing clear from a lineout in the 12th minute and providing the last pass for one of Elinor-Plum King's three tries. In the final at One NZ Stadium on 25 July she kicked three conversions from three, but the Blues won 28-21.

Under new head coach Whitney Hansen, she played in all 11 of the Black Ferns' Tests in 2026 and started nine. She scored in the 66-19 win over Australia in Auckland in August and in the 52-20 win over South Africa in Johannesburg, the Black Ferns' first Test on South African soil. Back home against France in Hamilton in October, she scored within a minute and again before ten minutes were up, diving over after the forwards won a tighthead, as the Black Ferns ran in 13 tries in an 81-12 win. A week later, off the bench in the 150th Test in Whangārei, her wide pass sent Amarante Sititi over for a try in a 31-12 win. She started the 36-7 win in Christchurch that ended the season.

Style and standing

The coaches who have worked with her keep returning to the same things: work rate, knowledge of the game and her kicking. Manson saw a box kick built in a single season; Christie highlighted her speed to the ruck and her passing. Joseph's own description of her game is a long pass and a kicking game, and she has kept the option of playing first five-eighth.

Her Test record by the end of 2026: 27 Tests, 18 starts, five tries and 25 points, with 20 wins, a draw and six losses. She has a World Cup bronze medal, an Aupiki title from her single 2022 appearance for Chiefs Manawa, Matatū's rookie of the year award and the 2022 Fiao'o Fa'amausili Medal.

What is next

New Zealand Rugby's profile says she is continuing her medical studies with the aim of becoming a doctor. On the field, the Black Ferns meet the Wallaroos at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Anzac Day 2027 and then host the British and Irish Lions Women in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in September 2027, with the World Cup in Australia to follow in 2029.

Career at a glance

Test figures are from New Zealand Rugby's records (stats.allblacks.com) and World Rugby match data; NZR also lists two non-Test matches, in 2025 and 2026. Provincial, Chiefs Manawa and Matatū figures to the end of 2025 are from rugbyhistory.co.nz.