Mererangi Paul (born 29 October 1998) is a New Zealand

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player. She plays for

Chiefs Manawa The Chiefs Manawa are a New Zealand women's professional rugby union team based in Hamilton, New Zealand, that competes in the Super Rugby Aupiki competition. Chiefs Manawa won the inaugural season of the Super Rugby Aupiki competition. They w ...

in the

Super Rugby Aupiki Super Rugby Aupiki is a professional women's rugby union club competition in New Zealand. Its inaugural season was held in March 2022. It is a stepping stone between the Farah Palmer Cup and the Black Ferns. Aupiki translates as ‘''the asce ...

competition and for Counties Manukau in the

Farah Palmer Cup The Farah Palmer Cup (formerly known as Women's Provincial Championship until 2016), is the highest level domestic women's rugby union competition in New Zealand and is named after the former Black Ferns captain, Farah Palmer. It is held annual ...

Early career

Netball & Touch rugby

Paul played for the

Northern Mystics Northern Mystics are a New Zealand netball team based in Auckland. Between 2008 and 2016, they played in the ANZ Championship. Since 2017 they have represented Netball Northern in the ANZ Premiership. Netball Northern is the governing body t ...

in the

ANZ Premiership The ANZ Premiership is the top level netball league featuring teams from New Zealand. In 2017 it replaced the ANZ Championship, which also included teams from Australia, as the top level netball league in New Zealand. It is organised by Netbal ...

, she debuted for them in the

2017 ANZ Premiership season The 2017 ANZ Premiership season was the inaugural season of Netball New Zealand's ANZ Premiership. All matches were broadcast on Sky Sport (New Zealand). With a team coached by Reinga Bloxham, captained by Wendy Frew and featuring Gina Crampt ...

. She also competed for the New Zealand Women's Open squad for the 2019

Touch Football World Cup The first Touch World Cup tournament was held in 1988. Touch and the Touch World Cup are monitored by the international governing body for touch the Federation of International Touch (FIT). The Touch World Cup has been hosted in five continents ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

Rugby sevens

Paul played her first sevens game for Rotoiti three weeks prior to Auckland's

Red Bull Ignite7 Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

competition in 2018. She was named as one of the top three women during the tournament and earned a spot at the Black Ferns Sevens National Development Camp for 2019. Paul also competed for the Surge Women's team in the 2020 Red Bull Ignite7's tournament in December. She played

Fly-half In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16� ...

for Counties Manukau in the

and has also represented

Bay of Plenty The Bay of Plenty () is a large bight (geography), bight along the northern coast of New Zealand's North Island. It stretches from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runaway in the east. Called ''Te Moana-a-Toitehuatahi'' (the Ocean ...

in sevens.

Rugby career

Paul joined

in 2022 as part of their wider training squad before making her first start for the side during the

2023 Super Rugby Aupiki season The 2023 Super Rugby Aupiki season was the second season of Super Rugby Aupiki (known as Sky Super Rugby Aupiki for sponsorship reasons), a professional women's rugby union club competition organised by New Zealand Rugby. The competition ran from ...

. She started on the wing in her debut for the Chiefs against

Hurricanes Poua Hurricanes Poua are a New Zealand women's professional rugby union team based in Wellington, New Zealand that competes in the Super Rugby Aupiki competition. Hurricanes Poua cover the same catchment area as the Hurricanes including the Farah Palm ...

in the opening match of the season. She later scored a hat-trick in her sides win over the

Blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

in round two of the competition. In the third and final round, an error from

Matatū Matatū is a New Zealand women's professional rugby union team that competes in the Super Rugby Aupiki competition. Matatū represents the South Island, specifically the regions covered by the Crusaders and the Highlanders. They were crowned th ...

helped Paul score her team's first points. She scored in the Chiefs semi-final win against Hurricanes Poua, and also featured in their loss to Matatū in the final. Paul was one of 34-players who received

Black Ferns The New Zealand women's rugby union team, called the Black Ferns (), represents New Zealand in women's international rugby union, which is regarded as the country's national sport. The team has won six out of nine Women's Rugby World Cup tour ...

contracts on 17 April 2023. In June, she was named in the Black Ferns 30-player squad to compete in the

Pacific Four Series The Pacific Four Series is an international rugby union competition that is sanctioned by World Rugby. It is contested between four women's national teams — Australia women's national rugby union team, Australia, Canada women's national rugby u ...

and O’Reilly Cup. She scored two tries on her debut against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

on 29 June 2023 at

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

. At the

in July, she scored two tries in her sides 21–52 victory over

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

References

External links

Black Ferns Profile

Chiefs Manawa Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paul, Mererangi 1998 births Living people New Zealand female rugby union players New Zealand netball players New Zealand female touch players New Zealand female rugby sevens players New Zealand women's international rugby union players 21st-century New Zealand sportswomen