Te Puke's Santo Taumata part of Black Ferns World Cup squad

Santo Taumata with her parents Tai and Toafia after her Black Ferns debut in Adelaide. Photo / NZR

Not yet 20, Te Puke's Santo Taumata has already made two appearances for the Black Ferns.

She is also a member of the squad looking to win the Rugby World Cup kicking off on Saturday.

Santo made her debut off the bench in August during the Laurie O'Reilly Cup game against Australia in Adelaide, a strong run shortly after she came on early in the second half leading to a Joanah Ngan-Woo try. She was on the bench again for the big win over Japan last month, playing the last 24 minutes of the match.

It's been a meteoric rise for the 19-year-old, who left Te Puke High School in 2020.

As she moved up the ranks, she also moved through the playing positions.

At school, she was a centre, at club and provincial level a No, 8 and now, as an international, a prop.

Santo was raised in Te Puke, and went to Te Puke primary and intermediate schools before attending the high school.

"I started playing in Year 11," she says.

Watching her brothers play was her incentive.

"I really wanted to play, but felt I couldn't because it was a boys' sport," she says.

Even those few years ago, the profile of women's rugby was much lower than it is now.

"With club rugby, there weren't many girls who were interested, but now there's a lot of girls putting their foot forward for it. Back then we had to look for players and ask at the weekend, now people are more interested, so they have actual trials."

She was especially encouraged by high school girls rugby coach Dean Heyblom.

"I'd played netball my whole life, it was just when I switched to rugby I decided to stop netball because I just felt a lot better playing rugby."

While at school she was also a cultural leader and heavily involved in school events, especially celebrating and proud of her Samoan heritage.

"Then rugby was like a side thing. I really enjoyed rugby, but I was more involved in all the Pasifika events."

With one of the Bay of Plenty's strongest women's teams on her doorstep, it was an obvious move to play for Rangiuru when she left school.

"It was natural because it was local and I knew some of the girls that went there."

She was quickly called into the Bay of Plenty Volcanix, then in November, she was named in the Chiefs' Manawa squad for the 2022 and inaugural Super Rugby Aupiki season.

Her parents, Tai and Toafia, were on hand to see her make her Black Ferns debut in August.

She says playing at a higher level was always a goal, but calls asking her to take the next step seemed to come one after the other.

"I knew it was a goal for some time in the future, but I just kept getting calls - can you come here, can you go there? It was overwhelming, but pretty cool."

She recalls the moment she heard she had been called into the Black Ferns squad

"My heart kind of stopped for a bit - I was at work and saw I had a missed call from [Manawa coach Allan Bunting] so I thought it was a call about the Chiefs. He said I'd made the squad for the O'Reilly, but I thought it was, like, for a camp so I was pretty chill about it.

"I asked when the camp was and he said 'no, you've made the squad'. I just paused for a second - I had heaps of emotions - and just thought of my family straight away."

Santo wasn't called into the match-day squad for the first game in the series in Christchurch, but was on the bench for the second.

"Throughout the week, after we got named, I was really emotional and then when we sang the national anthem I was, I guess, just proud to be there."

Volcanix, Manawa and Black Ferns teammate and fellow front-rower Luka Connor is one of the players Santo says has helped her a lot.

"Not only is she a mean player that I look up to, but she's helped me personally, like she would always message and see how I'm going - she'd go out of her way to check up on me knowing everything was happening so fast for me. She just kept in contact throughout the whole season.

Santo Taumata playing for Rangiuru.

Kendra Reynolds, another Rangiuru player who is in the world cup squad, has also influenced Santo's rise

"She was the one who suggested I move into the forwards and who suggested I would make it far if I moved to prop.

"It was a big change - I think it's more technical at prop, whereas No. 8 is basically pushing hard and running hard."

Finding out she would be part of this year's world cup was a big shock, she says.

"I didn't really believe it at first. I question myself a lot and say, 'why me?' But I guess talking to other girls, they say 'obviously you are here for a reason'."

She hasn't set any goals for the tournament.

"I don't want to put too much pressure on myself and expect to play - just to give my everything at all the trainings.

"I guess all I want is to come out a better me, a better player and have a better mindset."

She doesn't want to look too far into the future, but says a big goal is to be fitter so she can enjoy the game more.

Santo appreciates the support of her family, recalling getting up for early-morning training to see her parents heading off for work, then knowing, when she was finishing evening training, they were only just getting home.

"I guess things like that made me want to do my best for them - they have sacrificed a lot for us.

"I'm very grateful for what they have done already. I get a lot of support from my family - I get emotional talking about them, but that's something that has pushed me real hard in rugby.

■ The Black Ferns begin their world cup campaign on Saturday against Australia at Eden Park.