Cynthia Ta'ala (born 29 August 1974) is a sportswoman who has played rugby league for the

New Zealand women's national rugby league team The New Zealand women's national rugby league team, also known as the Kiwi Ferns or New Zealand Kiwi Ferns, represents New Zealand in Women's rugby league. They are administered by the New Zealand Rugby League. New Zealand won the Women's ...

and has captained the

Samoa women's national rugby union team The Samoa women's national rugby union team is a national sporting side of Samoa, representing the nation at rugby union. The side first played in 2000. History Samoa has attended three World Cups, namely the 2002, 2006 and 2014 Rugby Wo ...

, of which she is now its assistant coach. She has also played for the

New Zealand women's national basketball team The New Zealand's elite women's basketball team is affectionately known to their home fans as the Tall Ferns. The team has been coached by Guy Molloy since 2018. The assistant coaches are Aik Ho and Jody Cameron. The Tall Ferns have a FIBA wor ...

Sporting career

Cynthia Ta'ala-Timaloa was born in August 1974. She played basketball for

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

at the age of 16. A member of the

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

women's rugby team, she first played for the Kiwi Ferns national

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

team in 1999 and was still playing in 2010 at the age of 36. During that period New Zealand won three

Women's Rugby League World Cup The Women's Rugby League World Cup is an international rugby league tournament, contested by the women's national team of the International Rugby League (IRL). The competition has been held since 2000 in Great Britain and since 2008 has been ...

s. In 2003 she was chosen as a member of the "Team of the Tournament", in the full back position. In 2014, Ta'ala captained the Manusina Samoa women's rugby union team at the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

, having qualified at the 2013 European Qualification Tournament in

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. She finally retired as a player at the age of 43 following an injury, having previously found it difficult to hang up her boots.

Coaching activities

In 2017 Ta'ala began working for Counties Manukau Rugby Football Union in southern Auckland, for which she had previously played. Her new role as a women's rugby development officer gave her the opportunity to start coaching. She is now a World Rugby accredited coach. She is the assistant coach of ''Manusina Samoa'', most of whose members live in New Zealand and in 2021 she also helped coach a '' Moana Pasifika'' women's rugby sevens team.

Other activities

Ta'ala is the sports coordinator at Marist College, Auckland, a

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girls high school. As a member of the Pasifika Sports Collective, she joined with other well-known sportspeople from the Pacific islands in October 2021 to encourage people from the Pacific to be vaccinated against

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...

. Other members of the collective included former rugby union players Semo Sititi and

Alama Ieremia Namulauulu Alama Ieremia (born 27 October 1970) is a New Zealand rugby union coach and former international player for Western Samoa and New Zealand. Early life Ieremia was born in Sinamoga, a suburb of Apia, Samoa. He was educated in Samoa at ...

, former rugby league player Motu Tony, and former netball player Linda Vagana. Together with Motu Tony,

Kevin Senio Kevin Senio (born July 6, 1978) is a former New Zealand rugby union professional who most recently played professionally for ASM Clermont Auvergne. He is currently the head coach of Ponsonby Rugby club, based in Auckland, New Zealand. Senio is ...

and

Tracy Atiga Tracy Atiga (''née'' Helleur) is the CEO of Kanaloa Rugby, a Pacific Island-owned professional rugby franchise. She is of Māori and Samoan descent and has played rugby union for Samoa. Early life Tracy Lorraine Helleur Atiga was born in New Ze ...

, Ta'ala is also a founder-member of the Pacific Advisory Group, which was set up in 2017 to help bridge the gap between Pasifika and non-Pasifika players involved in rugby in Auckland.

References

{{Samoa WRWC 2014 1974 births Living people New Zealand female rugby union players New Zealand female rugby league players New Zealand women's national rugby league team players Samoa women's national rugby union team players Samoa women's national rugby union team coaches