Ngano Tavake: the Palmerston North prop whose first Black Ferns scrum won a penalty

Ngano Tavake has played most of her rugby in and around Palmerston North: seven Farah Palmer Cup seasons in the green-and-white hoops of the Manawatū Cyclones, a place in the Hurricanes Poua squad from the franchise's first season, and club rugby in Palmerston North in between. In August 2026, aged 25, the loosehead prop was one of five uncapped players named in Whitney Hansen's Black Ferns squad. On 19 September she came off the bench at Hive Stadium in Edinburgh to become Black Fern No 277, and her first scrum in a black jersey won a penalty. This is her story so far.

Palmerston North

Tavake was born in Palmerston North on 10 July 2001. New Zealand Rugby's profile gives St Peter's College in the city as her school and describes her as a product of it. Little has been published about her junior rugby, but her senior club rugby has been played at home: Kerry Geertson's rugbyhistory.co.nz database lists her with University and OB Marist, and when Manawatū named its 2024 Cyclones squad she was listed with Old Boys-Marist, the Palmerston North Marist club NZR gives as the one she was selected from. NZR has her at 175 centimetres.

Seven seasons with the Cyclones

She first played for Manawatū in 2019, the year she turned 18, as a replacement in one match. In 2020 she came off the bench six times, and in 2021 she was starting at prop. NZR's preview of the following year recorded that the Cyclones won the Championship by winning all six of their matches and outscoring their opponents 328-48, and the final against Hawke's Bay finished 55-12. Promotion to the Premiership followed for 2022.

The step up was not a permanent one. By 2023 the Cyclones were back in the Championship and lost the final 32-29 to Northland, a season in which Tavake also packed down at hooker in one match, according to rugbyhistory.co.nz. In 2024, under head coach Campbell MacNeill, Manawatū won the title, beating Otago 33-3 in the Championship final, and Tavake scored two tries that season. That 2024 squad also included Kaipo Olsen-Baker, Layla Sae, Elinor-Plum King and Maia Davis, all of whom would be Black Ferns by the end of 2026.

Back in the Premiership in 2025, the Cyclones opened their campaign against the previous year's finalists, Canterbury, in Christchurch, with Tavake named to start alongside Poua team-mates King, Paige Lush and the Sturmey sisters, Kahurangi and Rangimarie. Manawatū reached the semi-finals, and Tavake added three more tries. By the end of 2025 rugbyhistory.co.nz had her on 38 games and five tries for the province, which matches NZR's count of seven seasons with the Cyclones.

The first Poua

When Super Rugby Aupiki began in 2022, Tavake was in the first Hurricanes Poua squad. It was a season shaped by Covid: the Poua had to withdraw from their scheduled opening match against the Blues because of cases and isolation requirements, and every game was played at FMG Stadium Waikato in Hamilton. Tavake was among the front-row replacements for the franchise's first match, a 29-8 loss to Chiefs Manawa on 15 March, and she wore No 17 five days later when the Poua beat Matatū 18-6 for their first win, Ayesha Leti-I'iga scoring both tries. The Hurricanes Alumni Foundation lists her as Hurricanes Poua player No 16, and rugbyhistory.co.nz records two appearances off the bench that year.

The database records no Poua appearances for her in 2023 or 2024. When she next turned out for the franchise, in 2025, NZR's match report noted that she was back from a spell in Japan.

Back in the swirl

The 2025 Poua, under new head coach Fusi Feaunati, did not win a match, but Tavake was a regular in the front row and found the try line twice. At NZCIS in Upper Hutt on 22 March she was one of the Poua scorers as they came back from 26-7 down to trail Matatū 26-24 heading into the final quarter, before losing 43-24. A fortnight later at Eden Park, after Taufa Bason opened the scoring for the Blues, Tavake struck back with a try of her own, though the Blues won 49-26 to secure a home final. By then, NZR noted, the Poua had lost ten matches in a row.

In 2026 she started at loosehead in the Poua's pre-season match against Matatū and, in NZR's words, was a consistent selection through the Aupiki season. Against Chiefs Manawa at Navigation Homes Stadium in Pukekohe in round three, with the Poua trailing 14-3, she was sent off in the 33rd minute for a croc roll, the yellow card upgraded to red on review. Down to 14, the Poua scored 24 unanswered points and won 34-29. It was their first Aupiki win since March 2024, after a run of 12 games, their first victory over Manawa in eight meetings and only the fifth win in the franchise's history. "Really proud," said co-captain Te Rauoriwa Gapper.

Black Fern No 277

Hansen named her 31-player squad for the rest of 2026 on 10 August. It included nine changes from the Pacific Four Series squad, five of them uncapped players picked off the back of consistent Aupiki form: Tavake, Amarante Sititi, Elinor-Plum King, Maia Davis and Shyrah Tuliau-Tua'a. Tavake was listed as a loosehead prop, 25 years old, from the Hurricanes Poua and Manawatū.

Her first outing in the black jersey came four days later in a non-Test match against the Black Ferns XV at Maidstone Park in Upper Hutt, where she came off the bench in No 17 in a 62-19 win. The Test debut took longer. She was not used in the O'Reilly Cup win over Australia at Mt Smart, in Johannesburg or in Lyon, but for the Test against Scotland in Edinburgh she and Davis were named on the bench to make their debuts.

"Ngano's actions speak louder than her words," Hansen said at the team announcement, praising her humility and work ethic.

The Test on 19 September was the first the Black Ferns had ever played in Scotland. They scored ten tries to win 66-14 at Hive Stadium, their highest score against Scotland since 1998. NZR's match report recorded that the bench emptied and debuts were awarded to the Manawatū duo of Tavake and Davis. Tavake won a scrum penalty with her first hit.

Back in New Zealand she came off the bench in No 17 again in Hamilton on 17 October, when the Black Ferns beat France 81-12. For the series finale in Christchurch she was not in the original match-day 23, but when Santo Taumata aggravated a neck injury on the day of the match, Tavake was called in to play tighthead prop off the bench in the No 18 jersey, switching to the other side of the scrum. The Black Ferns beat France 36-7 at One NZ Stadium to complete a three-Test home sweep and finish a season of ten wins from a record 11 Tests.

Tavake ended 2026 with three Tests, all off the bench, and three wins.

What is next

She turns 26 in July 2027, and the Black Ferns' calendar for that year is already taking shape. It begins with an O'Reilly Cup Test against the Wallaroos at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Anzac Day, straight after the first Anzac Day Bledisloe Cup Test between the All Blacks and Wallabies, and builds to September, when the British and Irish Lions Women make their first tour, with 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 3); World Rugby's team lists agree. Provincial figures are from rugbyhistory.co.nz and run to the end of the 2025 season.