Maiakawanakaulani Roos: the Tāmaki College head girl who became the Black Ferns' youngest captain

In 2018 a schoolgirl sat on the stage at Tāmaki College in Auckland while a group of Black Ferns announced professional contracts for New Zealand's leading women players. Three years later Maiakawanakaulani Roos was one of them, named for her Test debut on a tour of England and France. Since then she has won a World Cup, become the youngest captain in Black Ferns history, led the Blues to Super Rugby Aupiki titles and, in 2026, been named in World Rugby's Dream Team of the Year. Most people call her Maia. Her first name is Hawaiian, and RugbyPass has reported its meaning as a warrior whose light shines through the heavens.

From Utah to Tāmaki

Maiakawanakaulani Cerena Turepu Roos was born in Utah in the United States on 27 July 2001. Her family moved to New Zealand in 2009, when she was seven, according to the New Zealand Rugby Museum profile written by Adam Julian. Her mother's side is from the Cook Islands, and Tagata Pasifika reported that the family's roots are in the village of Ngatangiia on Rarotonga.

She first played rugby in a mixed team at Glen Taylor School, but she told 1News she only took the game seriously once she reached high school. At Tāmaki College her coach, teacher and dean was the former Black Ferns prop Doris Taufateau. "She taught me how to love the game," Roos said of Taufateau.

Roos captained the Tāmaki College First XV in her last two years at school and was head girl. She has described what she brought to that role in modest terms. "I wasn't the best academic or sportswoman," she told the museum profile, adding that she was involved in a lot of things.

She was captain of the girls' First XV in Year 12 when the Black Ferns came to the school to announce the contracts. She remembered leaving that day feeling "so inspired", she told 1News in 2021. RugbyPass has also reported that Ruahei Demant, a close friend of the school team's head coach, helped coach her as a schoolgirl. The two would win a World Cup together.

College Rifles and the Storm

In Year 12 Roos joined College Rifles, the club in Remuera. In 2019, still at school, she was picked for the Auckland Storm by their coach, the former Black Fern Anna Richards. "I got an email in science class saying I'd been picked for the Storm," she recalled. She asked to go to the toilet and ran to find Taufateau to say thank you.

Her Farah Palmer Cup debut came in a 41-23 win over Waikato. She played in all eight of Auckland's games that season, most of them off the bench, alongside the veteran Black Ferns lock Eloise Blackwell, as the Storm reached the final and lost 30-20 to Canterbury. In 2020 she played five more games as Auckland reached the semi-finals, and was picked for the New Zealand Barbarians, starting the second of their two games against the Black Ferns that November. By the end of 2023 she had played 28 games for Auckland, according to rugbyhistory.co.nz, including two at blindside flanker in 2023.

The first Blues

On 1 May 2021 Roos was in the Blues side that played the Chiefs at Eden Park in the first women's Super Rugby match in New Zealand. When Super Rugby Aupiki began in 2022 she started the Blues' opening game, a 21-10 win over Matatū, and the 35-0 loss to Chiefs Manawa that decided the inaugural title.

In 2023 the Blues lost a semi-final 26-23 to Matatū at North Harbour Stadium. In 2024 Roos shared the captaincy with Demant, played the season at blindside flanker and scored two tries, and the Blues beat Chiefs Manawa 24-18 at Eden Park for their first title. In 2025 coach Willie Walker asked her to be sole captain. RugbyPass reported that she said no at first. She took the job, and the Blues came from 12-0 down to beat Matatū 26-19 in the final at Eden Park and become the first team to defend the Aupiki title, then beat the NSW Waratahs 36-5 in the first trans-Tasman Champions Final.

By the 2025 final, RugbyPass counted, she had not missed a minute of the 21 Aupiki matches played in the competition's history. When she re-signed in June 2026, New Zealand Rugby said she had played every minute of her 24 matches for the Blues.

In 2026, in the first fully professional Aupiki season, she captained the Blues again. In the last round, a 38-29 win over Matatū, superrugby.co.nz reported that the Blues captain was playing her 100th first-class game. In the final in Christchurch, with the scores locked at 21-21 and extra time looming, superrugby.co.nz described "an inspired surge" from Roos that put the Blues on the front foot before Katelyn Vaha'akolo scored the winning try in the corner. The Blues won 28-21 for a third straight title, and a week later beat the Waratahs 24-17 at Leichhardt Oval to keep the Champions Final trophy.

A Black Fern at 20

Glenn Moore named Roos in his squad for the 2021 northern tour, the Black Ferns' first Tests in two years. She was one of three debutants in the side for the second Test against England, and came off the bench at Northampton on 7 November 2021 in a 56-15 defeat. "I was sitting in my lounge and I was watching my idols," she told 1News of the previous Test. Now she was sitting on the sideline watching her friends.

She started both Tests against France, in Pau and Castres, both lost. The tour brought four defeats, but Roos said she had never felt more ready for a game than she did for her debut.

World champion

Wayne Smith took over in 2022 and Roos started at lock in his first Test, the 23-10 win over Australia in Tauranga, where Campbell Burnes wrote for New Zealand Rugby that she "got stuck into her duties in the tight". A week later she scored her first Test try, from a lineout move set up by Amy Rule, in the 28-0 win over Canada at Waitākere, and stayed on after a knock to the knee because the Black Ferns had used all their replacements.

At the World Cup at home that year she came off the bench in the opening win over Australia at Eden Park, then scored tries in the pool wins over Wales and Scotland. She started at lock in the 55-3 quarter-final win over Wales, the 25-24 semi-final win over France and, on 12 November 2022 in front of more than 42,000 at Eden Park, the 34-31 final win over England. She was 21. World Rugby nominated her for its Breakthrough Player of the Year award.

The youngest captain

In July 2023, during the Pacific Four Series in Canada, Allan Bunting named Roos to captain the Black Ferns against the USA in Ottawa, with co-captains Demant and Kennedy Simon on the bench. She was 21 years and 352 days old. New Zealand Rugby said she was the youngest player to captain the Black Ferns, and the record held before her, by Farah Palmer, had stood since 1997; in World Rugby's match records Palmer was 24 when she first led the side. Tagata Pasifika reported that Roos was brought to tears when told. The Black Ferns won 39-17.

"Maia has been exceptional, a true professional both on and off the field," Bunting said. "She is a good human and is always looking out to help others."

The Black Ferns won that Pacific Four title, but lost 18-17 to France in Wellington and 33-12 to England in Auckland in the first WXV. Roos played every Test in 2023 and every Test in 2024, a year that brought two defeats by England, a loss to Canada and a 29-27 loss to Ireland in Vancouver. She scored against England in a 49-31 defeat at Langley in October.

England, twice

In 2025 she played in the Pacific Four Series and the July Test against Australia, and went to the World Cup in England. She started all five games after the opening win over Spain: Japan, Ireland, the quarter-final against South Africa, in which New Zealand Rugby counted 15 tackles, two turnovers and four lineout catches, the 34-19 semi-final loss to Canada in Bristol and the 42-26 bronze-medal win over France at Twickenham.

That northern winter she returned to England. Women's Rugby Data lists her with Ealing Trailfinders in the Premiership Women's Rugby competition and records a try for them against Harlequins in a 27-26 defeat on 30 January 2026.

Signed to 2029

Back home, she played all three Pacific Four Tests in April 2026 as the Black Ferns kept the title. In June she re-signed with New Zealand Rugby and the Blues until the end of 2029. New Zealand Rugby said she was already the ninth most-capped Black Fern, with 41 Tests, and the first Black Fern to align her national contract with her Aupiki club. "Maia has been with us from the start," Walker said. New Zealand Rugby chief executive Steve Lancaster pointed to her "durability and consistency".

In the second half of the year she started every Test but one. She scored in the 66-19 win over Australia at Mount Smart Stadium, played in the historic first Test on South African soil in Johannesburg, and started in Lyon, Edinburgh and at Twickenham. She came off the bench in Whangārei and started the 36-7 win over France in Christchurch on 31 October, her 49th Test. Since her debut the Black Ferns have played 51 Tests, and Roos has missed two: one in August 2022 and the World Cup opener against Spain in 2025.

When World Rugby named its Women's 15s Dream Team of the Year for 2026, Roos was at lock, one of five Black Ferns alongside Kaipo Olsen-Baker, Ayesha Leti-I'iga, Sylvia Brunt and Braxton Sorensen-McGee.

Off the field

Roos and her Black Ferns team-mate Liana Mikaele-Tu'u have gone back to Tāmaki College as mentors, working with students who are struggling. She has said she will always volunteer for school visits, because of what one did for her. "It's so cool having superstars go into schools," she told 1News.

What is next

Roos turned 25 in July. She told RNZ in August that she was committed to New Zealand and had her sights on "the Lions tour next year and then the Rugby World Cup in 2029". The Black Ferns play the Wallaroos in Brisbane on Anzac Day 2027 and host the British and Irish Lions Women in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in September. Her contract runs through the 2029 World Cup in Australia.

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 match reports; the New Zealand Rugby profile lists four tries, which appears not to include her try against Australia in August 2026. Awards: World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year nominee 2022; World Rugby Women's 15s Dream Team 2026.