Mo’omo’oga Ona Palu: the Hastings prop who made her Black Ferns debut on Anzac Day

In October 2019 an 18-year-old prop from Hastings Girls' High School was coming off the bench for the Hawke's Bay Tui and drawing the kind of cheers the province's rugby fans once kept for cult hero Sona Taumalolo. She told Hawke's Bay Today that playing for the Black Ferns was a realistic goal "within the next couple of years". It took longer than that, but on Anzac Day 2026 Mo’omo’oga Ona Palu ran out at tighthead for the Black Ferns against the Wallaroos on the Sunshine Coast, and five months later she scored her first Test try in Edinburgh. This is the story of Mo'omo'oga Palu: known as Ashley in her Hawke's Bay days, Ona at Matatū, and Black Fern No 272.

Hastings

Palu was born in Hastings on 23 September 2001. She started playing rugby at Heretaunga Intermediate, had a break from the game in her first year at secondary school, played for the Karamu High School girls' team in Year 10 and then spent three seasons in the First XV at Hastings Girls' High School. She was also a useful field athlete, in the discus and the shot put, but gave those up to concentrate on rugby. Her club, according to New Zealand Rugby, is Hastings Rugby and Sports.

In October 2019, in her final year at school, she was part of the Hawke's Bay under-18 girls' team that won the Hurricanes region title.

A Tui at 18

That same season she made her Farah Palmer Cup debut for the Tui. Kerry Geertson's rugbyhistory.co.nz database records seven appearances, all off the bench, and four tries, and it was her powerful carrying that had Hawke's Bay Today comparing her to Taumalolo, the Tongan international who played 61 games for the Magpies. "Having that level of support helps me play much better," she said before the Championship final against Otago in Dunedin. The Tui lost it 24-20.

The story also recorded a turning point. Palu said she had planned to play rugby for fun in 2019, but changed her mind after a conversation with Black Ferns assistant coach Wes Clarke that month. "Playing for the Black Ferns is a realistic goal for me," she said. She could prop on either side of the scrum, the paper noted, but preferred loosehead.

She played twice for the Tui in 2020 and seven times in 2021, six of them as a starting prop, scoring four more tries. Hawke's Bay reached the Championship final again that year and lost 55-12 to Manawatū.

South to Christchurch

For 2022 she moved to Christchurch. She was in the first Matatū squad for the inaugural Super Rugby Aupiki season, listed as Ashley Palu, and played twice off the bench. In the Farah Palmer Cup she played three games for Canterbury, who won the Premiership by beating Auckland 41-14 in the final, and one for Tasman, scoring a try.

In 2023 she went back to the Tui for three games as Hawke's Bay, newly promoted, reached the Premiership semi-finals and became one of only two sides to beat that year's champions, Auckland. Her Aupiki season that year brought five appearances off the Matatū bench and a title: she wore No 17 in the final in Hamilton on 25 March, when Matatū beat Chiefs Manawa 33-31 for their first championship.

The 2023 season ended with her first black jersey. When New Zealand Rugby set up the Black Ferns XV as a development side under coach Whitney Hansen, Palu was named for its first match, against a Manusina XV at Pukekohe on 23 September 2023, her 22nd birthday. The Black Ferns XV won 38-12 and rugbyhistory.co.nz credits her with a try. She said later that she "couldn't have asked for a better bunch to pull on the black jersey with".

Powerful and fast

Hansen was also her coach at Matatū. When Palu re-signed for 2024, Hansen said: "Ona is a really special athlete." She added that she had never seen anyone in rugby who could do what Palu could, and put it down to being "that powerful and that fast". Hansen also spoke of what Palu brought to the team culture, and Matatū's own player profile records one contribution in particular: before each match she braids her team-mates' hair.

Palu played six games off the bench for Matatū in 2024 and seven for Canterbury, who lost the Premiership final 27-25 to Waikato. In 2025 she started three of her five Aupiki games. She scored a try in Matatū's 37-29 win over the Blues in Whangārei on 29 March, and on 12 April she started at tighthead in the Aupiki final at Eden Park, which the Blues won 26-19. She toured South Africa with the Black Ferns XV that winter, then scored three tries in seven games for Canterbury, who again lost the final to Waikato, this time 19-13.

By the end of 2025 rugbyhistory.co.nz had her on 18 Aupiki games for Matatū, 19 for Hawke's Bay and 17 for Canterbury.

Black Fern No 272

Hansen succeeded Allan Bunting as Black Ferns head coach for 2026, and Palu was among the players invited to the February training camp in Wellington. In March she was named in the Pacific Four Series squad, one of two "powerful props", in NZR's words, picked off the back of their Black Ferns XV and Aupiki form. She had also signed for the Hurricanes Poua after four seasons with Matatū.

She was not used in the wins over the USA in Sacramento and Canada in Kansas City, but for the final match of the series, against Australia at Sunshine Coast Stadium on 25 April, she was named to start at tighthead alongside Chryss Viliko and hooker Georgia Ponsonby. It was the first time the Black Ferns had played the Wallaroos on Anzac Day. "From Hawke's Bay to high performance environments, I've witnessed Mo'omo'oga chase greatness," Hansen said, adding that the achievement had not come quickly.

In heavy rain the Black Ferns won 40-5, and they retained both the Pacific Four title and the Laurie O'Reilly Cup. Tighthead Veisinia Mahutariki-Fakalelu came on in the second half and scored.

Back home, Palu started at prop for the Poua in their pre-season match against Matatū, her first game against her old team, and was part of the Poua's 2026 Aupiki squad. She was named in the 31-player Black Ferns squad for the rest of the year on 10 August, but a concussion ruled her out of the O'Reilly Cup Test against Australia at Mt Smart Stadium.

Her second Test came in Edinburgh on 19 September, the Black Ferns' first Test in Scotland. Starting at tighthead, she broke two tackles and ran 20 metres to score the first time the Black Ferns reached the Scottish 22, according to NZR's match report. The Black Ferns went on to win 66-14 with ten tries, their highest score against Scotland since 1998.

She finished 2026 with two Tests, two starts, two wins and a try.

What is next

Palu turned 25 in September. The Black Ferns' 2027 programme begins with another O'Reilly Cup Test against the Wallaroos on Anzac Day, this time at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane after the first Anzac Day Bledisloe Cup Test, and peaks in September with the first British and Irish Lions Women's tour, three Tests in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. No squad for 2027 has been named.

Career at a glance

Test figures are New Zealand Rugby's (testCaps 2); World Rugby's team lists agree. Provincial, Aupiki and Black Ferns XV figures are from rugbyhistory.co.nz and run to the end of 2025.