Ruby Tui (born 13 December 1991) is a New Zealand

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player. She competed internationally when the national rugby sevens team won the silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics tournament. She won a gold medal in

rugby sevens at the 2020 Summer Olympics Rugby sevens at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo took place from 26 July to 31 July 2021 at the Tokyo Stadium. 24 teams (12 each for men and women) competed in the tournament. The dates were modified due to the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 ga ...

. She was a member of the Black Ferns team that won the

2021 Rugby World Cup The 2021 Rugby World Cup was the ninth staging of the women's Rugby World Cup, as organised by World Rugby. It was held from 8 October to 12 November 2022 in Auckland and Whangārei, New Zealand. It was originally scheduled to be held in 2021, ...

Career

Sevens

Tui made her sevens debut in 2012 in

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

and has been a part of the national setup ever since. Tui has been described as a "powerful and aggressive

prop A prop, formally known as (theatrical) property, is an object used on stage or screen by actors during a performance or screen production. In practical terms, a prop is considered to be anything movable or portable on a stage or a set, distinc ...

". She is a product of the Go4Gold campaign of the

New Zealand Rugby Union New Zealand Rugby (NZR) is the governing body of rugby union in New Zealand. It was founded in 1892 as the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU), 12 years after the first provincial unions in New Zealand. In 1949 it became an affiliate to t ...

. Tui was named as a non-travelling reserve for the Black Ferns Sevens squad to the

2022 Commonwealth Games The 2022 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Birmingham 2022, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations that took place in Birmingham, England bet ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

Fifteens

In November 2021, Tui was named in the Chiefs squad for the inaugural season of

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 steppingstone between the Farah Palmer Cup and the Black Ferns. Aupiki translates as ‘''the ascent to ...

. Tui was named in the

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 tourname ...

squad for the

2022 Pacific Four Series The 2022 Pacific Four Series was the second edition of the Pacific Four Series. The competition was hosted by New Zealand from 6 to 18 June. Matches were played at two of the venues which will host the delayed 2021 Rugby World Cup – The Trusts ...

and made her international debut against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Tauranga Tauranga () is a coastal city in the Bay of Plenty region and the fifth most populous city of New Zealand, with an urban population of , or roughly 3% of the national population. It was settled by Māori late in the 13th century, colonised by ...

on 6 June. She scored a brace of tries against

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

at the Pacific Four Series. She was selected for the August test series against

for the

Laurie O'Reilly Cup The Laurie O'Reilly Cup is the trophy competed for by the women's rugby union teams of Australia women's national rugby union team, Australia and Black Ferns, New Zealand. The two nations met annually between 1994 and 1998, with New Zealand winnin ...

. She was named in the Black Ferns

32-player squad. She subsequently participated in a number of games at the World Cup, including the final, which was won by the Black Ferns. After receiving her gold medal she spotted a young girl in the crowd and gave her the medal. The 11-year-old recipient had recently recovered from leukemia and had been introduced to Tui at fan engagement event earlier in the week. Tui was presented with a replacement gold medal at the World Rugby Awards in Monaco in November 2022. On 27 September 2022 she released her autobiography ''Straight Up''.

Achievements and honours

* 2017,

Canada Sevens The Canada Sevens is an annual rugby sevens tournament held every March. It is one of the ten stops on the World Rugby Sevens Series, and is played the weekend after the USA Sevens in Las Vegas. Canada secured a four-year deal to host to event ...

Langford dream team. * 2019, HSBC Dream Team for the 2019 series. * 2019,

World Rugby Women's Sevens Player of the Year The World Rugby Women's Sevens Player of the Year is awarded annually at the World Rugby Awards by World Rugby World Rugby is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, th ...

. * 2022 World Rugby Women’s 15s Breakthrough Player of the Year. * 2022

World Rugby Women's 15s Dream Team of the Year World Rugby Women's 15s Dream Team of the Year was first presented in 2021 by World Rugby. They were voted by a panel of international past players and coaches, World Rugby Hall of Fame inductees and rugby media. The 2021 panel were Liza Burgess (W ...

Personal life

Tui was born in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

in 1991 to Marion Mouat and Vaki Tui. Her father is Samoan and she is of Irish and Scottish heritage on her mother's side. Her parents separated when she was eight. She was educated at John Paul II High School in

Greymouth Greymouth () (Māori: ''Māwhera'') is the largest town in the West Coast region in the South Island of New Zealand, and the seat of the Grey District Council. The population of the whole Grey District is , which accounts for % of the West Coas ...

. Tui received a scholarship to study at

Aoraki Polytechnic Aoraki Polytechnic was a public New Zealand tertiary education institution. Aoraki Polytechnic's main campus was based in central Timaru, South Canterbury, South Island. It also had campuses offering a variety of programmes in Ashburton, Oamar ...

, where she completed a Diploma in Sport in 2013. Since 2019, Tui has been in a relationship with former

Mai FM Mai FM is New Zealand's largest urban contemporary radio network, promoting Māori language and culture and broadcasting hip hop and rhythm and blues. It is located in Auckland, and is available in ten markets around the country. The network targ ...

host Dani Fennessy.

References

External links

* 1991 births New Zealand female rugby union players New Zealand women's international rugby union players New Zealand female rugby sevens players New Zealand women's international rugby sevens players Rugby sevens players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic rugby sevens players of New Zealand Rugby union players from Christchurch Living people New Zealand people of Samoan descent New Zealand people of Scottish descent New Zealand people of Irish descent Canterbury rugby union players Olympic silver medalists for New Zealand Olympic medalists in rugby sevens Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Rugby sevens players at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games competitors for New Zealand Olympic gold medalists for New Zealand Rugby sevens players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics People educated at John Paul II High School, Greymouth Rugby union players from Wellington City {{NewZealand-rugbyunion-bio-1990s-stub LGBT sportspeople from New Zealand LGBT rugby union players People educated at Wellington East Girls' College