Mererangi Paul: from the Northern Mystics to 23 tries in 24 Tests for the Black Ferns

In November 2018 a 20-year-old netballer from Whakatāne turned up at a sevens talent search in Auckland, three weeks after playing her first game of sevens, and was named one of the three best women there. Less than five years later Mererangi Paul scored two tries on her Test debut for the Black Ferns, and two more in her second Test. By the end of 2026 she had 23 Test tries from 24 Tests and an Aupiki title with the Blues. This is the story of how a late starter got there.

Whakatāne and the netball court

Mererangi Karen Paul was born on 29 October 1998 and raised in Whakatāne, one of seven children. She is of Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Rangitihi and Ngāti Awa descent. Her younger sister, Mahina Paul, has played for the Black Ferns Sevens since 2019 and won Olympic gold in Paris in 2024.

Netball came first. Paul played at Trident High School in Whakatāne and then at St Kentigern College in Auckland, and in 2017 she was contracted by the Northern Mystics in the ANZ Premiership, playing alongside Silver Ferns Anna Harrison and Maria Folau. She has said she was not "up to scratch" at that level, and like Portia Woodman before her she looked for another sport. She was also a high-level touch player, representing Counties Manukau at the national tournament and, in 2019, making the New Zealand Open women's squad for the Touch World Cup in Kuala Lumpur.

Rotoiti, Ignite7 and Japan

Her first game of rugby sevens was for the Rotoiti club late in 2018, under the coaching of former Black Ferns wing Victoria Grant. About three weeks later she was at the inaugural Red Bull Ignite7 talent search in Auckland, one of 96 hopefuls. Paul, who had only just finished her netball season, was named one of the top three women and earned a place at the Black Ferns Sevens national development camp for 2019. She was "shocked and surprised to get named in the top three," the Bay of Plenty Times reported. Mahina, who had just won Youth Olympic gold in Buenos Aires, went through the same week with her.

In February 2019 she toured Japan with the Black Ferns Sevens Development team, and she spent the first half of that year playing sevens in Japan, going back after the touch World Cup; New Zealand Rugby's profile records that she played professional sevens for Tokyo Phoenix. Asked about the switch between codes, she put it simply: "Touch is short sharp intensity and you can go for a sub."

Bay of Plenty and Counties Manukau

Fifteens followed. Paul played five games in each of the 2020 and 2021 Farah Palmer Cup seasons for Bay of Plenty, mostly in the midfield and on the wing, with club rugby for Rangataua and Rangiuru. In 2022 she moved to Counties Manukau, where she played first five-eighth in five of her six games, and she has since played her club rugby in the region for Ardmore Marist, Pukekohe and Manurewa. In 2023 she played fullback and centre for the Heat and scored five tries in four games. By the end of 2025 she had 14 games and 46 points for Counties Manukau.

Chiefs Manawa

Chiefs Manawa, the inaugural Aupiki champions, brought her into their wider training squad in 2022. In 2023 she made her debut on the wing in the season opener against Hurricanes Poua, then scored a hat-trick against the Blues in round two. She scored against Matatū in round three, in the 43-21 semi-final win over the Poua and in the final in Hamilton, where Matatū won 33-31. Her six tries put her second on the competition's try-scoring list. Manawa reached the final again in 2024, with Paul at centre, and lost 24-18 to the Blues at Eden Park. She played 18 games for the club over three seasons.

Two, two and three

New Zealand Rugby gave her a first contract in April 2023, and on 29 June she made her Test debut on the wing against Australia at Dolphin Stadium, north of Brisbane, in the same match as fellow wing Katelyn Vahaakolo. Paul scored twice, the first from a chip and chase, in a 50-0 win, the Black Ferns' biggest over Australia since 1997. "My tries were team efforts," she said. Nine days later in Ottawa she scored twice more as Canada were beaten 52-21, the Black Ferns' 100th Test win, which sealed the Pacific Four title. One of those tries, finished after a Maiakawanakaulani Roos lineout take and work from Amy du Plessis and Renee Holmes, was shortlisted for World Rugby's Women's Try of the Year.

In the first WXV that October she scored a hat-trick in the 70-7 win over Wales in Dunedin, a day before her 25th birthday. Ruby Tui had scored four in the first half, and Paul called it "a day for the wingers". A week later England won 33-12 at Mount Smart Stadium. "England was a hard game to take," she admitted, but it was good, she said, to measure herself against a benchmark. Seven tries in five Tests earned her a place on World Rugby's shortlist for Women's 15s Breakthrough Player of the Year, alongside Vahaakolo, who won it, France's Carla Arbez and Scotland's Francesca McGhie.

Fullback and finisher

The 2024 season opened with Paul at fullback for the first time in a Test, after five matches on the wing, against the USA in Hamilton. She scored three tries in 11 minutes in the first half and was named player of the match in a 57-5 win. Two weeks later she scored another hat-trick in a 67-19 win over Australia at North Harbour Stadium, then started at fullback again in the 39-14 win over France in Vancouver that closed the year. She had seven tries from seven Tests in 2024.

A World Cup from the outside

In 2025 Paul came off the bench against Australia in Newcastle and Canada in Christchurch, then injury ruled her out of the July home series and she was not named in the World Cup squad. She toured South Africa with the Black Ferns XV instead, playing two games at fullback and scoring a try. In September, with the Black Ferns already in England, Amy du Plessis was ruled out with a shoulder injury and Paul was flown in as her replacement, with Allan Bunting, the director of performance, noting that she could also cover the midfield. "It's a special moment for Mererangi and her whānau," he said. She joined the squad for the semi-final week but was not used in the semi-final or the bronze-medal match.

The Blues and a nine-try year

In February 2026 she signed with the Blues, the Aupiki champions, for their bid to win a third straight title. "Mererangi is a genuine game-breaker," said head coach Willie Walker. "She brings pace, power and great rugby IQ." Paul said: "The Blues kaupapa really stood out to me." She scored three tries in the regular season and started on the right wing in the final against Matatū at One NZ Stadium in Christchurch on 25 July, which the Blues won 28-21 for the three-peat. She was named on the bench a week later for the Champions Final against the NSW Waratahs in Sydney, which the Blues won 24-17.

Under Whitney Hansen, the Black Ferns' new head coach, the Test season brought a run of tries. She opened it with a hat-trick in the 48-15 win over the USA in Sacramento, then scored against Canada in Kansas City. She played in ten of the year's 11 Tests, seven of them as a starting wing, and scored in Lyon in the 28-14 win over France and at Twickenham in the 19-26 loss to England. In the Black Ferns' 150th Test, against France in Whangārei on 24 October, she scored the first try and later dived over in the corner for her second in a 31-12 win, and she came off the bench to score again in the 36-7 win in Christchurch that ended the season. That made nine Test tries in 2026.

Style and standing

Paul's numbers tell most of her story: 24 Tests, 23 tries, 115 points, four Test hat-tricks, and 18 wins, a draw and five losses in the matches she has played. She has started on both wings and at fullback, and Counties Manukau and Chiefs Manawa have used her at centre and first five. Her own view of what makes a world-class wing, given in her New Zealand Rugby profile, is about connection with the back three, decisive choices, a kicking option and getting defensive positioning right.

What is next

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. Paul turned 28 in October.

Career at a glance

Test figures are from New Zealand Rugby's records (stats.allblacks.com), which also list a 2026 match against a New Zealand Women XV as a non-Test. Provincial, Chiefs Manawa and Black Ferns XV figures to the end of 2025 are from rugbyhistory.co.nz; Blues 2026 tries are from the competition's published scorers.