Rugby convert Paris Lokotui – the Silver Fern that got away?

Source: Radio New Zealand

When Paris Lokotui ran out in last year’s ANZ Premiership grand final, she was on the brink of everything she had worked for – and quietly preparing to walk away from it.

The 24-year-old had just reached 50 domestic matches and would go on to help the Mainland Tactix secure their first premiership title.

Most netball pundits would agree it was just a matter of time before the wing defence broke into the Silver Ferns, but Lokotui chose to pursue a new path in rugby and has quickly progressed.

“I kind of had an understanding of what I wanted to do … even probably a couple of weeks leading up to the final, just in my head, although I didn’t really convey that to other people,” Lokotui said.

The Tactix lost seven players after the grand final, including three stalwarts, who were poached by the Australian league.

“I was finding out where everyone else’s movements were, that kind of gave me a better understanding of you know this was the right decision to make for myself.”

The Tactix had been in two grand finals but a domestic title had agonisingly eluded the franchise for years.

“It was just a whole lot of relief and pride that we could do it, not only for ourselves or the netball community but for Canterbury. It was really special and I don’t think it really hit me until I kind of left that setting, looking back it was definitely one of the highlights of my sporting career.”

Lokotui’s talents were identified early – she was named the 2021 Aspiring Silver Fern and made her first Silver Ferns development squad that same year.

After rupturing her ACL in 2022, she got back on court ahead of schedule when she joined the Tactix midway through the 2023 season. Later that year she was named in the Silver Ferns squad for the first time but didn’t get a debut over that 2023/24 international window.

A year later she was dropped down to the development squad, and two weeks after last year’s ANZ Premiership grand final, just missed out on the 2025/26 Silver Ferns.

In any other era, Lokotui may have become an established Silver Fern by now, but her career coincided with once-in-a-generation player Kate Heffernan.

With Heffernan the incumbent wing defence/centre slide for the Silver Ferns it was always going to be hard to find space for Lokotui, and she also had tough competition on either side of WD.

Lokotui had the ability to cover goal defence, but that was well covered by Silver Ferns WD/GD slide Karin Burger, while rookie Parris Mason could also make that transition.

Lokotui had the potential to be developed into a formidable centre, but that was taken care of between Heffernan and Maddy Gordon.

For similar reasons, despite an impressive 2025 season, there was no room for Magic WD/C slide Georgie Edgecombe either.

Still, Lokotui could have bided her time and found herself in the Silver Ferns after the 2027 World Cup cycle.

Given she was so close to breaking into the Silver Ferns, did that make it harder to walk away when she did?

“Yes and no, I think that I had played netball for a long time at a high performance level, I was in and around that environment for a long time.

“I just think that at the time, you know I had given everything that I could to the sport and I was okay with where I left netball and proud of the kind of adversity that it took to even stay in that Silver Ferns space.

“But I guess when you’ve given everything to the sport and haven’t made it as far as you’ve wanted, it was all right and I’ve kind of just accepted the fact that that’s where my career ended.”

Lokotui played several sports when she was younger. By the time she left school she had already represented New Zealand in netball (NZ Secondary Schools), basketball (Junior Tall Ferns) and water polo (New Zealand U16).

The talented sportswoman spent a season playing in Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa in 2023 and could easily have taken that path.

Lokotui said rugby could open the door to several career pathways, including sevens, which has been on the Olympic programme since 2016.

“There are a lot more avenues that you can take for rugby, there’s sevens, if you wanted to go down the league route there’s NRLW. There’s also many competitions outside of New Zealand like in Australia, in England, Japan, so there are a lot of opportunities now for women in rugby.”

It’s not the first time promising netballers have switched to the rugby codes.

Most notably, Portia Woodman-Wickliffe spent a couple of seasons in the former ANZ Championship before becoming one of rugby’s greatest female players, dominating both Sevens and 15s.

In recent years, Grace Kukutai went from ANZ Premiership netball to sevens, to Super Rugby Aupiki, and more recently playing in league’s NRLW.

Lokotui grew up around rugby. Her father is former Tongan lock Tukulua Lokotui, who went to two Rugby World Cups. Her brother Cody Lokotui was part of the Crusaders academy, and played NPC rugby for Wellington last year.

She started considering a rugby switch about two year’s ago.

“Rugby has just always been a part of my life with my Dad playing professional rugby for many years, my brother and my little sister playing it growing up. But actually leaving netball and switching to rugby was probably something I started thinking about within the last couple of years. To finally be in this position where I’m actually giving it a good crack and succeeding is really special to me.”

Lokotui won’t rule out returning to netball, but for now her focus is seeing how far she can go in rugby.

“At the moment I just really want to give rugby a good shot, whether that’s for a couple of years or 10 years, who knows.”

Her only real rugby experience until last year, was playing sevens for her college in the final two years of school with her mates.

She took her first formal step last year when she turned up to pre-season trainings with Canterbury’s wider domestic squad, and was out of her comfort zone.

“Just being in and around that environment for Canterbury FPC (Farah Palmer Cup) just trained a couple of times, just trying to get the idea of 15s.

“I think the daunting aspect was that you know I’ve never really been in a position where contact was a really big factor. But I’m the type of person who really likes to embrace challenges and this rugby community has really embraced me as well with two hands and that’s really helped me along my journey.”

Because Lokotui grew up watching so much rugby, she already had a pretty good understanding of the 15s game and the rules.

“I kind of got the gist with my brother and my Dad playing it but in terms of just trying to implement structures and the rugby-specific language that they use, that was a challenge. But I know that I’m a really fast adaptor and that’s been an aspect where I’ve tried to take it on with two hands and if I got it wrong, then I got it wrong, it’s about how I can learn from it.”

Lokotui then got her first taste of a sevens tournament format when she was named in one of four squads for the 2025 Ignite7 tournament in Tauranga at the end of last year.

Last month, Lokotui was named in the Matatū squad for the 2026 Super Rugby Aupiki season with head coach Blair Baxter describing her as an incredibly versatile athlete, with a competitive edge.

Lokotui said the rugby community had been extremely welcoming – “looking from afar before I transitioned, it was a community that you wanted to be a part of so to be in and around it now, it’s been awesome”.

Lokotui will cover both loose forward and lock for Matatū and said the improvements she had made since showing up to her first practice were huge.

“Over the past six months there’s been a whole lot of learning and just trying to make sure that the people around me can support me but not only that, just knowing how I can be a better athlete.

“It’s been a really hard six months I guess but really proud of the steps that I’ve taken and the want to be a good rugby player not only for myself but for my team-mates.”

Netball blazed a trail when it became the first professional women’s sporting league in New Zealand nearly two decades ago. But other codes have caught up with basketball, rugby, and cricket having their own semi-professional competitions now.

Lokotui said elite netball had set her up well for the Super Rugby Aupiki competition, which is coming into its fifth season.

“Just being professional at a high level, I think netball really instilled that in me quite young and to come from a sport where a lot was given to you, but a lot was demanded of you, it really prepared me for this next step to a completely new sport and that professionalism, that hard work ethic and that discipline has translated over.”

Lokotui has been getting in as much training as she can over the past few months. Matatū begin their pre-season proper this week, with Aupiki kicking off in the middle of June.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand