 Brazier in 2016 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1989-10-28)28 October 1989 (age 36) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Height | 170 cm (5 ft 7 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 70 kg (154 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| School | Otago Girls' High School Otago Polytechnic | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Professional rugby player | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Kelly Brazier (born 28 October 1989) is a New Zealandrugby union andsevens player. She has playedflyhalf,centre andfullback for theBlack Ferns, New Zealand's women's national rugby team, and has competed at threeRugby World Cups in2010,2014, and2017. She has representedOtago,Canterbury and theBay of Plenty in theFarah Palmer Cup.
Brazier has also represented theBlack Ferns sevens team in theOlympic Games, theRugby World Cup Sevens, theWomen's Sevens Series, and theCommonwealth Games. She has won gold medals in every major sevens tournaments. Brazier was the first player, of either sex, to have won two sevens World Cups and two fifteen=a-side World Cups.
Brazier was born inDunedin to an English father and an Irish mother who came to New Zealand with their first child Tony. Her sport career started at five when her two-years-older brother took her to a rugby field, and was split betweentouch in summer andrugby during winter.[citation needed]
Brazier was in New Zealand's U21 mixed touch team at 14 and in New Zealand secondary schoolgirls team at 15. She also began to play inAlhambra Union rugby in 2003 andOtago Spirit provincial selection in 2004.[2] She entered New Zealand rugby's record books on 2 May 2009, when she scored 64 points – ten tries and seven conversions – for her club in the Otago Metropolitan Women's Premier match againstKaikorai at theUniversity Oval in Dunedin.[3]
Brazier made her international debut againstEngland on 14 November 2009 atPillar Data Arena, inEsher, when Black Ferns won 16–3.[4] In the second test match played atTwickenham in front of a record crowd of 12500 people Black Ferns was defeated 10–3.[5]
Brazier was among the nominees for the 2009 Steinlager Rugby Awards forNZRU Women's Player of the Year withCarla Hohepa andVictoria Heighway, who won.[6][7] She was also named the Otago Institute of Sport and Adventure's top sportsperson in 2009 and 2010.[8]
Brazier took part in the2010 Women's Rugby World Cup, playing a key role in the Black Ferns' success in the final againstEngland and becoming the leading point scorer with 4 tries, 11 conversions and 2 penalties.[9][10] She scored her first try during the match againstSouth Africa thanks to a fine pass byAnna Richards.[11]
After going to coach and play for Clan Rugby inEdmonton, Canada for four months, Brazier went back to New Zealand for the start of Women's NPC with Canterbury. In spite of a good debut with her new team – two tries in a 60–0 win overHawke's Bay Tuis[12] – and some other victories againstManawatu Cyclones and her former team Otago Spirit, Canterbury failed to reach the final.[13]
In October 2011, she was called by New Zealand head coachGrant Hansen to playthree tests against England, a tour which concluded with two losses and a draw for Black Ferns and only 5 points for her (a conversion and a penalty).
Brazier was named in the squad for the2017 Women's Rugby World Cup.[14][15] At the2018 Commonwealth Games, Brazier was scored the winning try in the grand final againstAustralia, running 80 metres and securing gold for New Zealand. In 2019, she was part of the winning team of theWomen's Super Rugby Series.[16]
Brazier was named in theBlack Ferns Sevens squad for the2022 Commonwealth Games inBirmingham.[17][18] She won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games.[19][20] She later won a silver medal in her thirdRugby World Cup Sevens inCape Town.[21][22][23]
Brazier played for New Zealand in the2022–23 Women's Sevens Series.
Returning to the New Zealand team for the 2023–24 season Brazier scored her one hundredth try in the team's quarter-final win over Brazil in the Dubai tournament on 2–3 December 2023.[24]
An severe ongoing Achilles injury in 2024 meant that she was unavailable for selection for the New Zealand sevens team for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Brazier was selected for theNew Zealand team to play in the first two tournaments of the2024-2025 Sevens season.[25]
At the second tournament of the season held inCape Town on 7–8 December 2024 she celebrated playing in her 50th tournament of the Sevens series.[26]
In July 2025, she was named in the Black Ferns squad to theWomen's Rugby World Cup.[27][28] Her appearance in England meant that she became only the second woman to play in four World Cups.
In February 2026, after 18 years of playing for New Zealand Brazier announced her retirement from playing rugby.[29]
Brazier had long expressed a desire to transition to coaching.
In 2023 Brazier was granted a eight-week sabbatical so that after the 2022-23 World Sevens Series finale in Toulouse, she could be an assistant coach with theBrave Louve Club in Japan between May and July for the Taiyo Seimei Women's Sevens competition.[30][31][32] Her role as ‘spot coach’ included working on the game plan and player skills.[32] Her family accompanied her to Japan.
In 2025 she was an assistant coach at the Global Youth Sevens and later with the New Zealand Development Sevens team.[29]
Concurrent with her retirement in 2026 from playing rugby she joined the technical staff of theChiefs Manawa as assistant coach for the 2026 Super Rugby Aupiki competition.[29]
Brazier is openly lesbian and her wife Tahlia gave birth to their first child, a son in 2020.[33][34] The couple subsequently had a second son.
