The New Zealand women's rugby union team, called the Black Ferns, represents New Zealand in women's international rugby union, which is regarded as the country's national sport. The team has won six out of nine Women's Rugby World Cup tournaments.
Anita Amma Ankyewah Asante is an English football coach and former player who is the first-team coach at Bristol City. A defender or midfielder, she won 71 caps for the English national team and was selected in the Great Britain squad for the 2012 London Olympics. At club level, Asante has played for English clubs Arsenal, Chelsea and Aston Villa, whilst also having played for Saint Louis Athletica, Chicago Red Stars, Washington Freedom and Sky Blue FC of the American Women's Professional Soccer (WPS). She also spent six seasons playing in Sweden, two with Göteborg and then four with FC Rosengård.
Natasha Khalila Dowie is an English former footballer. She represented the England women's national football team at the youth level before making her senior international debut in 2009. Dowie played for the London teams Watford, Fulham and Charlton Athletic, and then spent five years with Everton before transferring to FA WSL clubs Liverpool Ladies in November 2012 and Doncaster Rovers Belles in 2016. She also spent three periods on loan with Melbourne Victory of the Australian W-League in 2015, 2016, and 2017 and played for Boston Breakers in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in 2016 and 2017.
Sophie Elizabeth Bradley-Auckland is an English former international football defender who played for Nottingham Forest, Leeds United, Lincoln Ladies, Doncaster Rovers Belles, Liverpool, and, Sheffield United.
Sylvia Margaret Gore was an English football player and coach. She scored the England women's national football team's first goal in its first official match, a 3–2 win over Scotland in Greenock in 1972, and was involved in women's football for 60 years.
Margaret Omotayo Sanni Alphonsi is an English former rugby union player who played as a flanker for Saracens W.R.F.C. and England before retiring in 2014. She was Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year in 2010, and was inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame in November 2016 during the opening ceremonies for the Hall's first physical location in Rugby, Warwickshire.
Rochelle "Rocky" Clark, is an English rugby union player for Saracens. She represented England at the 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup tournaments.
Rebecca Anne Essex is an English female rugby union player and headteacher. She competed for England at the 2010 Rugby World Cup and was part of the Champion, 2014 side.
Vanessa Gray is a former English rugby union player. She represented England at the 2006 Women's Rugby World Cup. She started ahead of Sophie Hemming in the 2007 Six Nations clash against Ireland which they won 32–0.
Sarah Hirini is a New Zealand women's rugby union player. She has played fifteen-a-side and seven-a-side rugby union, as a member of the New Zealand women's national rugby sevens team and New Zealand women's national rugby union team. Hirini was captain of the New Zealand Women's Sevens team that won a silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and back-to-back gold medals at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. During her time with the team they won the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series in 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2016–17, 2018–19, 2019–20 and 2022–23 as well as the Sevens league title for the 2023-24 season. She was a member of the fifteen-a-side 2017 and 2021 Black Ferns Rugby World Cup winning squads.
Sophie Spence is a former Ireland women's rugby union international. Spence represented Ireland at the 2014 and 2017 Women's Rugby World Cups. Spence was a member of the first Ireland teams to defeat England and New Zealand. She was also a member of the Ireland teams that won the 2013 and 2015 Women's Six Nations Championships. Spence is a British Nigerian who qualified to represent Ireland through her mother, who was originally from Lisburn, County Antrim.
Deborah Jevans CBE is a British former tennis player and current sports executive.
Anna Michelle Peterson is a New Zealand former cricketer who played as an all-rounder, batting right-handed and bowling right-arm off break. She appeared in 32 One Day Internationals and 33 Twenty20 Internationals for New Zealand between 2012 and 2020. She played domestic cricket for Northern Districts, Auckland and Typhoons. She was the first cricketer for New Zealand to take a hat-trick in a Women's Twenty20 International. In October 2021, Peterson retired from international cricket, and in March 2022 she retired from all forms of cricket.
Georgia Marie Stanway is an English professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Frauen-Bundesliga club Bayern Munich and the England national team. Stanway started her senior career at Blackburn Rovers before joining Manchester City and winning the WSL in 2016, as well as three times the FA Cup and League Cup. In her first two seasons with Bayern she won the Frauen-Bundesliga. Stanway has also represented England at various youth levels, including captaining the U17 team, prior to scoring on her senior debut in 2018.
Sophie Ecclestone is an English cricketer who plays for Lancashire, North West Thunder, Manchester Originals, UP Warriorz and England. In December 2018, the International Cricket Council (ICC) named her the Emerging Player of the Year. At the end of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup in March 2020, she became the world's number one bowler in Women's Twenty20 International (WT20I) cricket. In July 2021, Ecclestone was named the ICC Women's Player of the Month for June 2021.
Victoria Moreen Cornborough is an English rugby union player. She debuted for England in 2015. She was named in the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup squad for England. She was awarded a full-time contract with England in 2019 and plays for Harlequins Women at club level.
Deborah Griffin is a pioneer of the growth of women's rugby, both in England and globally.
Lauren May Hemp is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for Women's Super League club Manchester City and the England national team. With City, she is a FA Cup and League Cup winner, and with England; she is a European Championship and Finalissima winner, as well as World Cup runner-up. Since 2017, Hemp was twice named FA England Young Player of the Year and four times named PFA Women's Young Player of the Year.
Anna Sofia Kessel MBE is a British sportswriter and journalist for The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, and The Observer newspapers. She is the co-founder and former chairperson of the UK football charity Women in Football, which lobbies against sexism in the game.
Linda Pauline Uttley was an English rugby union footballer.
