All five One New Zealand Warriors players – including debutantes Stacey Waaka and Kaiyah Atai – are set to line up for the Kiwi Ferns in their opening match of the Rugby League World Cup against Fiji at McDonald Jones Stadium in Newcastle tomorrow (5.50pm kick-off NZT).
Veteran Black Ferns rugby union star Waaka becomes a double international when she starts of the wing.
Scoring nine tries in 10 games in her first NRLW season with the Warriors, she was voted the players’ player of the year.
Atai, named the Warriors’ 2026 Harvey Norman NRLW player of the year, starts in the second row in her first Test for the Kiwi Ferns. She switched her allegiance after previously representing the Cook Islands.
As well as Waaka and Atai, Apii Nicholls, Mele Hufanga and Ivana Lauitiiti have also been included.
Fullback Nicholls plays her 19th international in what will be her third World Cup since making her debut at the 2017 tournament.
Hufanga, who has scored seven tries in 13 Tests, starts in the centres and Lauitiiti is on the interchange bench.
Named on the bench for Fiji Bulikula is former Warrior Teaghan Hartigan.
