Maiakawanakaulani Roos and Liana Mikaele-Tu'u of New Zealand pose for a portrait during the New Zealand Women's Rugby World Cup 2025. Photo World Rugby via Getty Images
When Liana Mikaele-Tu’u spells it out, she makes no attempt to hide her feelings. “We’re robbed of game time back home,” says the New Zealand international. “I’ve never played anything other than 10 games at club level in a single year.”
Across the table, Maia Roos, her Black Ferns teammate and long-time friend, nods. The pair, both World Cup winners in 2022, have been lapping up precious minutes in Premiership Women’s Rugby this season – Mikaele-Tu’u at Harlequins and Roos with Trailfinders Women, who are based in Ealing – and Telegraph Sport has brought them together at a Richmond coffee shop as they prepare to face each other in a crunch southwest London derby this Friday night at the Stoop.
They are among eight Black Ferns who put pen to paper last autumn amid a dawning realisation that their own domestic league, Super Rugby Aupiki, would not begin until June this year. After the World Cup, they were faced with a choice: find a PWR team or go months without playing a single game of competitive rugby.
“Everything felt a bit last-minute after the World Cup,” Roos says, which prompts a sigh from Mikaele-Tu’u, who adds: “There’s always a big change after a World Cup cycle but we always find a way. I pretty much had a day to make my decision to join Quins.”
It is hard to envisage a top men’s player scrambling around for club rugby off the back of a record-breaking tournament. But Mikaele-Tu’u and Roos are living embodiments of women’s players determined to succeed despite a system, not because of it.
“I don’t think I fully realised how isolated we are and what we’re missing, in terms of exposure and that back home, we’re not getting enough game time,” Mikaele-Tu’u says. “I’ve really enjoyed having game time in the PWR, mixing with Scottish, Welsh, Irish players and getting that exposure. It was pretty scary because we’ve been around the same environments for most of our careers.”
For Mikaele-Tu’u and Roos, that could not ring truer. They have been practically inseparable since they began playing for the Auckland-based College Rifles, before representing the city’s Aupiki side, Blues, at provincial level. They even worked as “community angels” together at Roos’ former high school in Auckland before professionalism called. They dissolve into fits of laughter at the mention of the bizarre job title.
“We had to make sure that kids were going to class and if they weren’t we’d have to talk to them, understand what was happening, and push them on to the school’s pastoral care leader,” laughs Roos. Mikaele-Tu’u chips in: “You wouldn’t believe the number of times I’ve had to describe what a community angel is. That was the year we got our first Black Ferns contracts … and then we had to drop the job!”
The duo were part of New Zealand’s disastrous northern tour in 2022, when they lost to England and France as the Black Ferns fell to their lowest ebb. Six months later, under All Blacks guru Wayne Smith, they won a home World Cup at Eden Park. After the record-breaking success of England’s own World Cup win last year, do they believe New Zealand, which will host next year’s inaugural women’s Lions tour, truly capitalised on their 2022 success?
“I’m very hopeful that our people come and fill the stadiums because after the 2022 World Cup, we had a bit of a drought in the crowds,” says Mikaele-Tu’u. “But bringing the Lions tour to New Zealand will be really exciting for our game.”
It remains to be seen whether the swarm of Black Ferns gaining experience in English club rugby comes back to bite the Lions next year, or even the Red Roses at the next World Cup in 2029. Mikaele-Tu’u and Roos have both immersed themselves in their respective clubs, with Roos speaking highly of pivotal England centre Meg Jones.
“She’s one of the most welcoming girls on our team,” says Roos, who became the youngest player to captain the Black Ferns in 2023. “Getting to know her, along with the Scotland and Welsh girls, has been great. Meg is so skilful. I’m in awe of her skill set in training.”
Both ball-wrecking additions to their respective packs in the PWR, they have been enriched by the set-piece orientated style of play that has become synonymous with the Red Roses in recent years, as well as the evolving rivalries within the league.
“I love the diversity of the PWR,” says Roos. “There’s real competition every week. Each team has their own playing style, especially in the set-piece for me as a lock, and that’s been something I’ve really enjoyed: adjusting our game plan to find a way through them.”
For Mikaele-Tu’u, the whole experience has given her food for thought. “I would love to see a match-up between a Super Rugby Aupiki and PWR team,” she says. “The talent in New Zealand is amazing, but we’re just not exposed enough to different styles. We don’t get international players coming to New Zealand. We’re purely just local New Zealand talent, apart from a few Australians. I would love more international players to come over to Aupiki. There are players here who have said they’d love to explore it and I’m encouraging them. They would love it. Joy is very much a value that we instil in our rugby back home.”
Along with their England-based New Zealand peers, they will head back at the end of this month to join the Black Ferns and prepare for their Pacific Four series – the side’s first competition under new head coach Whitney Hansen, daughter of Steve, a totemic figure in New Zealand rugby.
But first, there is the small matter of going up against each other in a local derby, with both London sides in the hunt for a play-off spot. “This will be our first time ever that we’ve been on opposite teams,” says Mikaele-Tu’u. “We’ve played in every single team together back in New Zealand – club, provincial, Super Rugby, even in trial games we’ve not had to play each other. But there’s a first time for everything.”
Alana Borland, Ealing Trailfinders
Ruahei Demant, Bristol Bears
Tanya Kalounivale, Ealing Trailfinders
Liana Mikaele Tu’u, Harlequins
Georgia Ponsonby, Ealing Trailfinders
Maia Roos, Ealing Trailfinders
Amy Rule, Exeter Chiefs
Layla Sae, Harlequins (returned to New Zealand after sustaining ACL injury)