Tiana Penitani (born 12 January 1996) is an Australian

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 ...

footballer who plays for the

Parramatta Eels The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta that competes in the National Rugby League. The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, and their ...

in the

NRL Women's Premiership The Telstra NRL Women's Premiership (NRLW) is Australia's national rugby league competition for women's rugby league in Australia, female players. The first season of the league began in September 2018 with four teams. The league is run by the ...

and the

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Cronulla, in the Sutherland Shire, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australasia's premier rugby league ...

in the

NSWRL Women's Premiership The Harvey Norman Women's Premiership is a rugby league competition for clubs in New South Wales. It is the only state wide open age competition for women in New South Wales and is run by New South Wales Rugby League. The NSWRL Women's Premiershi ...

. Primarily a , she is an

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 ...

and

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

representative. She previously represented

in rugby sevens.

Background

Born in

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

, Penitani played junior rugby league for

La Perouse United The La Perouse United are an Australian rugby league football team based in La Perouse, New South Wales a suburb of south-central Sydney they play in the South Sydney District Junior Rugby Football League. Notable Juniors * Chick Donnelley (194 ...

before switching to

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 ...

and

Oztag Tag-rugby belt Tag rugby, or flag rugby, is a non-contact team game in which each player wears a belt that has two velcro tags attached to it, or shorts with velcro patches. The mode of play is based on rugby league with many similarities to to ...

. She is of Tongan descent.

Playing career

Rugby union

In 2014, Penitani, along with Brooke Anderson, captained Australia to the Gold medal at the

2014 Summer Youth Olympics The 2014 Summer Youth Olympics (), officially known as the II Summer Youth Olympic Games , and commonly known as Nanjing 2014 ( zh, c=南京2014, p=Nánjīng Èr Líng yī sì), were the second Summer Youth Olympic Games, an international sports ...

, held in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. This was the first time Rugby Sevens had been part of the Olympic programme since 1924. The tournament was Penitani's first in 14 months, following a serious knee injury sustained at the

2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens The 2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens was the sixth edition of the Rugby World Cup Sevens. The tournament was held at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia. New Zealand won the tournament, defeating England 33–0 in the final. Attendance for the tourname ...

. At 17 years and 163 days old, she became Australia's youngest ever representative in either 15s or 7s at a World Cup, when she represented Australia in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. In 2019, Penitani was on the award voting panels for both the World Rugby Men's Sevens Player of the Year and the World Rugby Women's Sevens Player of the Year.

Rugby league

In 2019, Penitani returned to rugby league, joining the

team. In May 2019, she represented NSW City at the Women's National Championships. On 14 June 2019, she signed with the

St George Illawarra Dragons The St. George Illawarra Dragons is an Australian professional rugby league football club, representing both the Illawarra and St George regions of New South Wales. The club has competed in the National Rugby League since 1999 after a joint- ...

team. On 21 June 2019, she made her debut for

, starting at in a 14–4 win over

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

. In Round 1 of the

2019 NRL Women's season The 2019 NRL Women's Premiership was the second season of professional women's rugby league in Australia. Teams Pre-season Regular season The season again operated under a round-robin format, with games played as curtain-raisers to the ...

, Penitani made her debut for the Dragons in a 4–14 loss to the

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos Rugby League Football Club Ltd., commonly referred to as the Broncos, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos play in Australia's elite com ...

. On 6 October 2019, she started at in the Dragons' 6–30

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

loss to the Broncos. In October 2019, she represented

at the

2019 Rugby League World Cup 9s The 2019 Rugby League World Cup 9s was the first staging of the Rugby League World Cup 9s tournament and took place on 18 and 19 October 2019 at Sydney's Bankwest Stadium. The tournament featured teams from 12 International Rugby League member ...

, scoring five tries and finishing as the tournament's top try scorer. On 25 October 2019, she made her Test debut for Australia in a 28–8 win over

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 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

References

External links

St George Illawarra Dragons profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Penitani, Tiana 1996 births Living people Australian sportspeople of Tongan descent Australian female rugby union players Australian female rugby sevens players Australia international rugby sevens players Rugby sevens players at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics Australian female rugby league players Sportswomen from the Australian Capital Territory Australia women's national rugby league team players St. George Illawarra Dragons (NRLW) players Rugby league centres Youth Olympic gold medalists for Australia