| Date of birth | 12 September 2000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Height | 1.62 m (5 ft 4 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 65 kg (143 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Montessa Tairakena (born 12 September 2000) is a New Zealand rugby sevens player.
| Date of birth | 12 September 2000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Height | 1.62 m (5 ft 4 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 65 kg (143 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Montessa Tairakena (born 12 September 2000) is a New Zealand rugby sevens player.
Tairakena has also represented New Zealand in athletics and touch rugby. [1] She is of Maori descent and is from the Tainui iwi. [2] She attended Hamilton Girls' High School and captained their 1st XV to a national title in September 2018. [3] [4] A month later she was a member of the Youth Olympic Games Sevens team that won gold. [5] [6]
In 2019, she made her Black Ferns Sevens international debut at the USA Women's Sevens in Glendale, Colorado. [7] [8] She scored one of five unanswered tries in their third place win against France at the tournament. [9]
She was named in the Bolt Women's side for the 2020 Red Bull Ignite7s tournament at Blake Park in Mt Maunganui. [10] She scored the first try in their 21–7 win in the final. [11]
Tairakena competed for the Black Ferns Sevens White team at the Takiwhitu Tutūru tournament in Wellington. [12] She was named in Waikato's XVs squad for the 2021 Farah Palmer Cup season. [13]
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