Teen prop in shock at Ferns selection

Not yet 20, Santo Taumata has already made two appearances for the Black Ferns, and will make her third on the biggest stage.

Taumata has been named on the bench for the Black Ferns World Cup opener against Australia tonight, continuing a meteoric rise for the 19-year-old, who left Te Puke High School in 2020.

Taumata made her debut off the bench in August during the Laurie O’Reilly Cup game against Australia in Adelaide. She was on the bench again for the big win over Japan last month, playing the last 24 minutes.

At school, she was a centre, at club and provincial level a No 8, and now, as an international, a prop.

She began playing rugby only in Year 11, watching her brothers play.

“With club rugby, there weren’t many girls who were interested but now there’s a lot of girls putting their foot forward for it.”

She was called into the Bay of Plenty squad, then in November was named in the Chiefs Manawa squad for the 2022 Super Rugby Aupiki season.

She says playing at a higher level was always a goal but calls asking her to take the next step seemed to come one after the other.

“I knew it was a goal for some time in the future, but I just kept getting calls — can you come here, can you go there? It was overwhelming, but pretty cool.”

She recalls the moment she heard she had been called into the Black Ferns squad.

“My heart kind of stopped for a bit — I was at work and saw I had a missed call from [Chiefs coach Allan Bunting] so I thought it was a call about the Chiefs. He said I’d made the squad for the O’Reilly, but I thought it was for a camp so I was pretty chill about it.

“I asked when the camp was and he said ‘no, you’ve made the squad’. I just paused for a second — I had heaps of emotions — and just thought of my family straight away.”

Bay of Plenty, Chiefs and Black Ferns teammate and fellow front rower Luka Connor is one of the players Taumata says has helped her.

“Not only is she a mean player that I look up to, but she’s helped me personally, like she would always message and see how I’m going.”

Kendra Reynolds, another Bay of Plenty player who is in the World Cup squad, has also influenced her rise.

“She was the one who suggested I move into the forwards and who suggested I would make it far if I moved to prop. It was a big change — I think it’s more technical at prop, whereas No 8 is basically pushing hard and running hard.”

Being selected for the World Cup was a big shock, she says.

“I didn’t really believe it at first. I question myself a lot and say, ‘why me?’ But, talking to other girls, they say ‘obviously you are here for a reason’.

“I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself and expect to play — just to give my everything at all the trainings. I guess all I want is to come out a better me, a better player and have a better mindset.”

Taumata puts huge emphasis on the support of her family, recalling getting up for early-morning training to see her parents, Tai and Toafia, heading to work, then knowing, when she was finishing evening training, they were just getting home.

“Things like that made me want to do my best for them — they have sacrificed a lot for us.

“I’m very grateful for what they have done already. I get a lot of support from my family — I get emotional talking about them, but that’s something that has pushed me real hard in rugby.”