Kaipo Olsen-Baker is World Rugby's Player of the Year, Elinor-Plum King the breakthrough star, and five Black Ferns make the Dream Team

Kaipo Olsen-Baker is the best women's fifteens player in the world. The Black Ferns No. 8 was named World Rugby Women's 15s Player of the Year for 2026 on the field at One NZ Stadium in Christchurch on Saturday 31 October, minutes after her team-mates had beaten France 36-7, and openside flanker Elinor-Plum King was named Breakthrough Player of the Year alongside her. Two days later five Black Ferns were named in World Rugby's Dream Team of the Year.

Both presentations were a surprise. Olsen-Baker was not even playing: she had been in a moon boot since leaving the second Test in Whangārei with a high ankle sprain a week earlier.

Kaipo Olsen-Baker: Player of the Year

Olsen-Baker played seven of the Black Ferns' 11 Tests in 2026, a season in which New Zealand won ten, retained the Pacific Four title and the Laurie O'Reilly Cup, and scored 503 points. Before the Test season she scored in every round-robin game of Super Rugby Aupiki for Matatū and led the competition's tackle count with 136, Newsroom reported.

She beat England's Zoe Harrison and Megan Jones and Canada's DaLeaka Menin to the award.

The award had been on her vision board, she told Newsroom. "A lot of the goats have accepted this award," she said, naming Sarah Hirini and Kendra Cocksedge among the players she looked up to, and she thanked her mother for what she had sacrificed. She joins a short list of New Zealanders to have won it, including Cocksedge in 2015, Portia Woodman in 2017 and Ruahei Demant in 2022.

Elinor-Plum King: Breakthrough Player of the Year

King is 22 and had never played a Test before this year. She made her debut against Australia in Auckland in August, scored two tries and was player of the match against South Africa in Johannesburg, and started the final Test of the year against France, where she made 14 tackles, the second most in the team. She has seven Tests, all of them in 2026.

The other nominees were Pauline Barrat of France, Amelia Whitaker of Australia and Bella Vogel of the United States.

Coach Whitney Hansen has spoken all year about depth in the loose forwards, and King is the clearest example: an openside who was not in the picture twelve months ago and finished the year as a first choice.

Five in the Dream Team

World Rugby named its Women's 15s Dream Team of the Year on Monday 2 November. England, the team that handed the Black Ferns their only defeat, have six players; New Zealand have five; Canada three and France one.

Roos, Brunt and Sorensen-McGee all play for the Blues, who had 11 players in the Black Ferns' end-of-year squad. Sorensen-McGee, 20, finished the year as the first Black Fern to score 100 points in a calendar year. Léa Champon, France's one representative, made 15 tackles against the Black Ferns in Christchurch and 21 in Whangārei.

The team was chosen by a panel of Fiona Coghlan, Lena Corson, Abby Gustaitis, Heather Moyse, Shannon Parry, Melodie Robinson and Danielle Waterman. World Rugby chair Brett Robinson called the individual awards thoroughly deserved.

The fans' Try of the Year went to France halfback Pauline Bourdon Sansus for her try against England in the Six Nations decider in May.

Rochelle Martin in the Hall of Fame

The same night in Christchurch, Rochelle Martin was inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame. The former Black Ferns loose forward won three World Cups. England's Sue Day and Jen Crawford of the United States were inducted at the USA v England Test in New York.

One more change at the Blues

There was a farewell in the same week. Willie Walker, who has coached the Blues women since the team was formed in 2021 and won three Super Rugby Aupiki titles in a row from 2024 to 2026, is leaving to become head coach of Fiji's women. "My time at the Blues has been an amazing adventure," he said. Blues general manager Murray Williams said he leaves an enormous legacy at the club, which will run a process to find a successor in the coming months.

What comes next

Olsen-Baker's ankle has no confirmed return date; Hansen said after Whangārei that she hoped it would come right. The Black Ferns do not play again until Anzac Day 2027, against the Wallaroos in Brisbane, and then host the first British and Irish Lions women's tour in September.

Sources: allblacks.com, 31 October and 2 November 2026; RNZ; Newsroom, 3 November 2026; Blues.