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New Zealand rugby sevens player From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Risealeaana "Risi" Pouri-Lane (born 28 May 2000) is a New Zealand rugby sevens player. She captained the 2018 Youth Olympics squad that won gold in Buenos Aires. She also won gold medals with the Black Ferns sevens team at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, the 2020 Summer Olympics and 2024 Summer Olympics.
Risaleaana (Risi) Pouri-Lane speaks to media at the 2023 Hong Kong Sevens | |||||||||||
| Full name | Risealeaana Pouri-Lane | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 28 May 2000 | ||||||||||
| Place of birth | Auburn, Sydney, Australia | ||||||||||
| Height | 1.64 m (5 ft 5 in) | ||||||||||
| Weight | 66 kg (146 lb)[1] | ||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
She is the only New Zealander to have won a gold medal at both a youth and summer Olympics.[3]
Risealeaana "Risi" Pouri-Lane was born on 28 May 2000[4] in Auburn, Sydney, Australia, to New Zealanders Lealofi and Kevin Pouri-Lane.[3] When she was three years old her family returned to New Zealand, settling in Motueka.[3]
She attended Motueka High School from where she graduated in 2017.
At the age of five she began judo and went on to win several national age group competitions. She represented New Zealand at the 2016 judo Oceania championships.[3] At the age of 10, she started playing touch rugby as a social player. She soon graduated to playing at a competitive level playing in the Motueka High School mixed touch team at the national secondary school tournament in 2016.[3] At the age of 17 she played for the New Zealand under 18 women’s team in the Trans-Tasman tournament. She also played in the school’s girls 15-a-side and sevens rugby teams, and was good enough while at high school to play for the Tasman women’s sevens in the national tournament.[3] As well as continuing with judo she also competed in athletics and netball while at high school.[3] These commitments clashed in 2015, when she had to decide between athletics, Condor sevens rugby and touch rugby national secondary school sports events, all occurring on the same weekend. She choose to attend the Condor sevens national tournament.[3]
In 2017 she was selected at the age of 16 for the New Zealand sevens development squad, with whom played in Japan and Australia.[3] In early 2018 she was awarded a 12 month contract with the New Zealand women's national rugby sevens team.[5] Aged 17, she was the youngest fully-contracted player.[6]
She took time away from the senior team to captain the New Zealand sevens team which won gold at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires in October 2018.[3]
Upon her return from Buenos Aires she made her debut for the senior team at the 2018 Dubai tournament[7]
Just prior to departure for their pre-camp on the Sunshine Coast for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Kat Whata-Simpkins suffered a hamstring injury, which resulted first in Pouri-Lane being added to the travelling team and when it was confirmed that Whata-Simpkins would not recover in time Tenika Willison was promoted to the initial 12. Alena Saili was made a travelling reserve or 13th player with Pouri-Lane staying on as another reserve. After injuries to other players in the warm-up to the final against Australia Pouri-Lane was promoted to the playing 12, coming on in the last moments of the game to assist the team in winning the gold medal.[8][9][3]
In January 2019 she was awarded a full 12 month contract with the sevens team.[10]
She was selected for the New Zealand Women's Rugby Sevens team for the Tokyo Olympics which went on to win the gold medal.[11][3] Upon her return from Tokyo she spent 14 days isolating at a managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facility before being reunited with family and released into the general population.
She was named in the Black Ferns Sevens squad for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.[12][13] She won a bronze medal at the event.[14][15] She later won a silver medal at the 2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens in Cape Town.[16][17][18]
After captain Sarah Hirini 2023 was unable to play for the rest of the 2023–24 World Rugby SVNS Series after rupturing a anterior cruciate ligament in the second game of the first tournament of the season in Dubai on 2–3 December Pouri-Lane took over the captaincy of the Black Ferns for the reminder of the season, during which she led them to winning the Sevens league title.[19] [6] However the team were only able to come third at the Grand Final in Madrid. Over the course of the competition she played 43 games, and scored 15 tries.[20]
On 20 June 2024 it was announced that she had been selected as a member of the New Zealand Women’s Rugby Sevens team for the Paris Olympics.[21] With Sarah Hirini returning from injury in make the team, it was subsequently decided that Hirini and Pouli-Lane would co-captain the team. The team won the gold medal, defeating Canada 19–12 in the final.[22]
Pouri-Lane is of Māori descent and affiliates to the Ngāti Kuia, Ngāti Koata, Ngāi Tahu iwi.[23]
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