Sylvia Brunt: the Ponsonby teenager who won a World Cup at 18 and made the 2026 Dream Team

When World Rugby named its Women's 15s Dream Team of the Year for 2026, the second five-eighth was listed by her full name: Logo-I-Pulotu Lemapu Atai'i Sylvia Brunt. Most of New Zealand knows her as Sylvia Brunt, the Ponsonby midfielder who was training with a premier women's side at 13, played in the first women's Super Rugby match in New Zealand at 17 and won a World Cup with the Black Ferns at 18. By the end of 2026, aged 22, she had played 40 Tests.

Shot put, league and tag

Brunt was born in Auckland on New Year's Day 2004. Her parents came from Samoa to start a family in New Zealand, and a 2018 profile in the Samoa Observer described her heritage as Samoan, Tongan and Fijian, with family roots in Fa'atoia and Apia. She is the eldest child in her family.

She grew up playing almost everything. By the time she was 15 the Samoa Observer could list rugby league, netball, basketball, tag and athletics alongside rugby. In league she co-captained the Bay Roskill under-15s to a championship at 13 and was named Auckland Rugby League's player of the year in 2017. She played for Te Mahurehure Storm at the New Zealand Māori Rugby League nationals in 2017 and 2018, winning the tournament both years and being named player of the tournament both times. In tag she won a bronze medal with a New Zealand team at the tag World Cup in Brisbane. In athletics, competing for the Roskill South club, she won medals in the shot put and discus at the Auckland championships and set the junior girls' shot put record at her school.

Mount Albert Grammar

That school was Mount Albert Grammar. At 13 she was already playing for its senior girls' sevens team, and in 2018 the school's tens and sevens sides won the Auckland secondary schools championships without losing a game. She was the school's player of the year in 2018, and that year she played for Auckland in both the under-15 sevens and fifteens teams, winning North Island titles in each, and for Auckland Central West under-18s. Later she captained the Mount Albert Grammar 1st XV to the College Sport Auckland championship, New Zealand Rugby's profile records.

Ponsonby

Her club is Ponsonby. She started training with the Ponsonby premier women's team at 13, and the Black Fern Charmaine McMenamin, a Ponsonby team-mate, told 1News that she more than held her own. "When she started we always knew she was going to go far," McMenamin said in 2022.

In 2020, aged 16, Brunt was part of the Ponsonby side that won the Coleman Shield, Auckland's premier women's club competition, and made her Farah Palmer Cup debut for the Auckland Storm. She played 17 games for Auckland between 2020 and 2023, according to Wikipedia.

Ponsonby has stayed close. During the 2025 World Cup the club's under-13 girls watched a video message from Theresa Setefano. "Me and Sylvia are the only ones from Ponsonby," Setefano told 1News. Brunt sent her own message home. "I love my club," she said. "I wouldn't be here without them."

The first Blues

On 1 May 2021, aged 17, Brunt played for the Blues against the Chiefs at Eden Park in the first women's Super Rugby match in New Zealand. The Blues lost 39-12, but the Blues' own player profile records that she scored a try. She was named in the Blues squad for the first season of Super Rugby Aupiki in 2022.

A call-up as injury cover

In 2022 Wayne Smith's Black Ferns coaches invited her to a camp on the advice of her Ponsonby team-mates in the squad, 1News reported, and she joined the Pacific Four Series squad as injury cover. On 12 June 2022 she came off the bench against Canada at the Trusts Arena in Waitākere and made her Test debut at 18, in a 28-0 win. Campbell Burnes, writing for New Zealand Rugby, described her as "a ball of energy off the bench". A week later she started at second five against the USA in Whangārei and scored a try in a 50-6 win.

She stayed for the O'Reilly Cup, coming off the bench in the 52-5 win in Christchurch and starting at centre in the 22-14 win in Adelaide, and was named in the World Cup squad, its youngest member. "Looking back 12 months, I never imagined myself being here," she said.

"She's been phenomenal," assistant coach Wesley Clarke told 1News, predicting "a massive future as a Black Fern". "She's brave, physical, and always has a big smile on her face," he said. Another assistant, Whitney Hansen, put it differently: "I don't know if she ever feels any pressure."

World champion at 18

At the World Cup Brunt came off the bench in the opening 41-17 win over Australia at Eden Park. A week later she started at centre against Wales at Waitākere and scored twice in a 56-12 win. One of them, finishing a flowing move that World Rugby said had been supercharged by a Ruahei Demant break, was nominated for World Rugby's Women's Try of the Year. She came off the bench again against Scotland in Whangārei. She was not in the match-day squad for the quarter-final, semi-final or the final, but she was part of the squad that won the World Cup at Eden Park on 12 November 2022.

Breaking through

In April 2023 Brunt received her first full-time Black Ferns contract. Two months later, on 29 June, she started at second five against Australia at Dolphin Stadium north of Brisbane, scored two first-half tries and was named player of the match as the Black Ferns won 50-0 in front of 7,055, then the largest crowd for a Wallaroos Test in Australia. She was 19. "It was kind of a buzz, I still can't believe it," she told 1News.

She explained what she was trying to bring. "I love to run with the ball," she said, adding that she wanted to create holes for others to keep defences guessing. That year she started against Canada in Ottawa, scored in the 43-3 win over Australia in Hamilton, and played in the 18-17 loss to France in Wellington and the WXV matches against Wales and England. New Zealand Rugby's profile notes that she and Amy du Plessis formed a midfield partnership during that 2023 season.

In 2024 she played every Test. She scored against Australia at North Harbour Stadium in the 67-19 win and again at Ballymore in the 62-0 win, and played through a year that brought defeats to Canada, England twice and Ireland. New Zealand Rugby's profile also records that she was named Pasifika Women's Breakthrough Player of the Year at the Pasifika Hall of Fame awards.

The 2025 World Cup

Brunt scored in the first three Tests of 2025 in which she started: in Newcastle, where by Adam Julian's account she pierced the Wallaroos defence late in the game, in the 27-27 draw with Canada in Christchurch, and in the 37-12 O'Reilly Cup win in Wellington in July.

At the World Cup in England she started against Japan in Exeter and against Ireland in Brighton, where she was named player of the match as the Black Ferns won 40-0. The World Rugby report on the game singled her out from the centre pairing she formed with Stacey Waaka. But she took a knock to the head that day, her second of the tournament, and missed the quarter-final against South Africa; the Otago Daily Times reported that delayed symptoms left her in doubt for the semi-final as well. She returned for the 34-19 semi-final loss to Canada in Bristol and scored a try in the 42-26 bronze-medal win over France at Twickenham.

2026

Brunt played all 11 of the Black Ferns' Tests in 2026, a record number in one year. She scored in the opening 48-15 win over the USA in Sacramento, started every Test of the Pacific Four Series and the O'Reilly Cup, played in the first Test on South African soil in Johannesburg, came off the bench in Edinburgh, and started at Twickenham and in all three home Tests against France.

In between came the first fully professional Aupiki season. She scored in the opening 42-7 win over the Hurricanes Poua, and in the final against Matatū in Christchurch she made the break that put Katelyn Vaha'akolo over for the Blues' second try. The Blues won 28-21 for a third straight title, a run that began in 2024.

At the end of the season World Rugby picked her at second five in its Dream Team of the Year, one of five Black Ferns alongside Kaipo Olsen-Baker, Maiakawanakaulani Roos, Ayesha Leti-I'iga and Braxton Sorensen-McGee, and one of three from the Blues.

What is next

Brunt turns 23 on New Year's Day 2027. The Black Ferns play the Wallaroos at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Anzac Day 2027 and host the British and Irish Lions Women in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in September, with the World Cup in Australia to follow in 2029. She told 1News in 2023 that she was grateful whenever she saw a young girl aiming to be a Black Fern, because it was not something she could have said she wanted to be when she was growing up.

Career at a glance

Test figures are from World Rugby's match records. New Zealand Rugby's profile lists 14 tries and 70 points from 41 matches, which includes one non-Test game. Awards: World Rugby Try of the Year nominee 2022; Pasifika Women's Breakthrough Player of the Year; World Rugby Women's 15s Dream Team 2026.