Vici-Rose Green: the Morrinsville hooker who has never lost a Test

The final try of the Black Ferns' 2026 season came from a driving maul in Christchurch, Vici-Rose Green wriggling over among a tangle of French legs to complete a 36-7 win. It was the 12th Test for the hooker from Morrinsville, and the Black Ferns have won all 12. At the start of 2025, the Waikato Herald wrote, she was still turning out for her province and "quietly rebuilding after injury setbacks". Her own word for what happened next is a "crazy rollercoaster".

Morrinsville and Hamilton

Victoria Rose Mary Green was born in Hamilton in 2002 and grew up in Morrinsville, which she calls "the cream of the country". New Zealand Rugby lists her school as Hamilton Girls' High School and her club as Hamilton Old Boys. Her junior rugby crossed paths with a future Black Ferns team-mate: "Renee is one of my good mates," she said of Renee Holmes in 2024. "I grew up with her a little bit during my younger rugby."

She has said she wants players back home to see that anyone can make it if they put in the work, and NZR notes her interest in growing the women's and girls' game, working with young players and supporting grassroots rugby.

Waikato and the Black Ferns XV

Green came into the Waikato Farah Palmer Cup side in 2022, mostly off the bench, playing seven games. In 2023 she started five of her seven games at hooker, and that season earned her a place in the first Black Ferns XV, the new second national side, which played Samoa's Manusina XV in September. She came off the bench in that match.

The next year was harder. She played only two games for Waikato in 2024, both as a replacement, but one of them was the final. She came off the bench at FMG Stadium Waikato on 5 October as Waikato beat a Canterbury side captained by Laura Bayfield 27-25 for the title, and was denied a late try when the ball was dislodged as she tried to ground it.

Chiefs Manawa

Green made her Super Rugby Aupiki debut for Chiefs Manawa in 2023 with one appearance off the bench, then played three more games as a replacement in 2024, including a place on the bench for the final at Eden Park, which the Blues won 24-18.

In 2025 she became Chiefs Manawa's starting hooker, playing five of her six games in the No.2 jersey, and scored twice: in a 22-24 loss to the Blues at Eden Park on 7 March and in a 46-7 win over Hurricanes Poua at Waikato Stadium a week later. By Allan Bunting's account she was with the Black Ferns from their first training camp of that year.

She started the 2026 Aupiki season at hooker in a pack with three other Black Ferns, Veisinia Mahutariki-Fakalelu, Mia Anderson and captain Kennedy Tukuafu. She scored twice in the opening round, a 26-52 loss to Matatū in front of 11,793 at One NZ Stadium in Christchurch, and again in the 26-27 loss to the Blues in Hamilton a week later.

A debut at North Harbour

Green's Test debut came in the last match of the 2025 Pacific Four Series, against the USA at North Harbour Stadium on 24 May. She was one of four debutants that day, alongside her Chiefs Manawa front-row partner Mahutariki-Fakalelu and sevens stars Jorja Miller and Risaleaana Pouri-Lane. "Veisinia and Vici-Rose have been with us since our first training camp," Bunting said when he named the side. "It's now their time."

She came off the bench in a 79-14 win that sealed the Pacific Four title and in which Portia Woodman-Wickliffe ran in seven tries to become the Black Ferns' leading Test try scorer. Two days later Green was still lost for words. "Don't quite have the words to explain my feelings," she told RNZ, adding that she had played in front of her whānau and friends. Of Woodman-Wickliffe she said: "Portia is just an amazing human on and off the field."

A World Cup start

She was on the bench again for the 37-12 win over Australia in Wellington in July, and when Bunting named his World Cup squad she was one of three hookers, with two Tests behind her. For the opening match of the tournament, against Spain at York Community Stadium on 24 August, NZR announced that "Vici-Rose Green anchors the scrum", between props Awhina Tangen-Wainohu and Amy Rule. It was her first Test start, and the Black Ferns won 54-8.

She came off the bench in the 40-0 win over Ireland in Brighton and again in the bronze final, when the Black Ferns beat France 42-26 at Twickenham to win their first World Cup bronze medal. "I was lucky enough to even step foot at Twickenham," she said later.

Looking after the body

Speaking on Waikato's All Sports Breakfast over the summer, Green looked back on "a wild 10 months" in which, she said, "everything happened so quickly". The biggest change was physical. "The biggest adjustment was looking after my body," she said, listing ice baths, stretching, compression and eating properly. Test rugby, she said, was faster and more physical: "You finish a test and there's nothing left in the tank."

When the international window closed she went back to sevens and club rugby around the North Island, and she says that reminded her why she started. "Going back to club footy, playing with your mates, chucking the ball around," she said, was why she fell in love with rugby. She is now a full-time professional athlete, which she enjoys except, she says, for pre-season in 30-degree heat. "But that's the mahi."

2026

Under new head coach Whitney Hansen she came off the bench in the first two Pacific Four Tests, the 48-15 win over the USA in Sacramento and the 36-14 win over Canada in Kansas City. After the Aupiki season she was named in the 31-player squad for the rest of the year with seven caps.

She scored her first Test try off the bench in the 66-19 win over Australia at Go Media Stadium in Auckland on 22 August, then came on in the 66-14 win over Scotland in Edinburgh, the Black Ferns' first Test in Scotland. Back home she was a replacement in all three Tests against France: the 81-12 win in Hamilton, the 31-12 win in Whangārei that marked the Black Ferns' 150th Test, and the 36-7 win in Christchurch on 31 October, where her maul try closed out the year.

That leaves her with 12 Tests, one start and two tries, and a perfect record: New Zealand Rugby's figures show the Black Ferns have won every match she has played for them.

What is next

Green turned 24 in 2026. The Black Ferns open 2027 against the Wallaroos at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Anzac Day, after the first Anzac Day Bledisloe Cup Test, and in September they host the first British and Irish Lions Women's tour, with Tests in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. The 2029 World Cup follows in Australia.

Career at a glance

Test figures are New Zealand Rugby's. NZR also lists one non-Test match, against a New Zealand Women XV in Upper Hutt in August 2026. Provincial, Black Ferns XV and Chiefs Manawa figures to 2025 are from the New Zealand Rugby History database; 2026 Aupiki tries are from Wikipedia's season record.