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 Ru ...

and has captained the Samoa women's national rugby union team, of which she is now its assistant coach. She has also played for the

New Zealand women's national basketball team The New Zealand women's national basketball team represents New Zealand in international Women's basketball, basketball competitions. They are nicknamed the Tall Ferns. The team has been coached by Guy Molloy since 2018. The New Zealand women' ...

Sporting career

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

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

at the age of 16. A member of the

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

women's rugby team, she first played for the

Kiwi Ferns 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 Ru ...

national

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

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 teams of the International Rugby League (IRL). The competition has been held since 2000 and was incorporated into the Festival of ...

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 name is ...

, having qualified at the 2013 European Qualification Tournament in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

. 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 The Counties Manukau Rugby Football Union (CMRFU) is the governing body of rugby union in Southern Auckland and the Franklin District, Franklin district of New Zealand. Nicknamed the ''Steelers'', their colours are red, white, and black horizon ...

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 Moana Pasifika is a professional rugby union team based in New Zealand and made up of players from various Pacific Island nations as well as New Zealand or Australian born players of Pasifika heritage, including Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and the Cook I ...

'' women's

rugby sevens Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. R ...

team.

Other activities

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

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

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 the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

. Other members of the collective included former rugby union players

Semo Sititi Semo Sititi (born 6 March 1974) is a rugby union footballer in Samoa. He was born in Motootua. Career He is a flanker and last played for Ricoh in Japan, having previously played for Celtic League side Border Reivers and Manu Samoa internationa ...

and Alama Ieremia, former rugby league player

Motu Tony Motu Iosefo Tony (born 29 May 1981) is a former New Zealand international rugby league footballer who played as a in the 2000s and 2010s. He previously played in the NRL for the New Zealand Warriors and the Brisbane Broncos before playing in t ...

, and former netball player

Linda Vagana Linda Tuumuliga Vagana (born 23 July 1971 in Auckland, New Zealand) is an international netball coach and former representative player from New Zealand. Vagana played as a circle defender, and was a member of the New Zealand national netball t ...

. Together with Motu Tony, Kevin Senio and Tracy Atiga, 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