Black Ferns star signs NRLW deal for 2025

NEWS: Black Ferns star Michaela Blyde will play for the Warriors in the club’s return to the NRLW next year.

This is a major coup for the Warriors women ahead of their return.

A two-time Sevens Olympic gold medalist, six-time World Series winner, and a world champion, Blyde is hopping codes at the end of the Sevens season on a one-year deal to the Warriors in 2025.

Blyde said putting her name on the contract brought plenty of excitement.

“I’ve been looking forward to this day for the last few months. To sign with the Warriors was a little bit of a surprise for me to be honest but nonetheless, I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity.”

The 28-year-old Taranaki-raised speedster won the back-to-back Sevens women’s player of the year in 2017 and 2018, was in the medal-winning Blacks Ferns squad at the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games, and won Commonwealth Games gold in 2018.

Blyde was also in the World Cup Sevens winning team in 2018 and has helped the Black Ferns to six World Sevens series triumphs since 2013.

Michaela Blyde scoring banging tries! It’s what she does ✨#HSBCSVNS pic.twitter.com/xcdfkgu1if

— HSBC SVNS (@SVNSSeries) September 27, 2024

She has scored almost 250 tries in more than 200 sevens appearances on the world stage.

New Zealand Warriors chief executive Cameron George said it was a landmark day for the club.

“This is so exciting, attracting a player of Michaela’s exceptional calibre to move from rugby union to join our NRLW squad. It says so much about the excitement the NRLW and rugby league is generating on the New Zealand sporting landscape.”

Blyde said she grew up following the Warriors.

“My family are rugby but when we knew the Warriors were playing on TV we’d change the channel to watch them and support them.”

Blyde was first drafted into the New Zealand Sevens team as a 17-year-old in 2013. She followed her mother Cherry, who played for the Black Ferns in 1992.

Blyde is still contracted with the NZ Rugby through to the end of the current international Sevens season, with the series set to end in May, and the NRLW kicking off in July.

It is likely she will rejoin the Sevens circuit in late 2025.