Date of birth | 1 March 2000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Place of birth | New Plymouth, New Zealand | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.64 m (5 ft 5 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 65 kg (143 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Iritana Hohaia (born 1 March 2000) is a New Zealand rugby union player. She plays halfback for Taranaki provincially and for Hurricanes Poua professionally.
She is also a police officer for the New Zealand Police Force
Hohaia was born in Ōpunake in Taranaki. She began playing club rugby at Coastal as a child and has also played representative Basketball.[1]
Hohaia won a gold medal with the New Zealand Sevens team at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires.[2] She was named Taranaki Whio's Player of the Year in 2019.[3] In 2020, she played for the Possibles against the Probables in a Black Ferns trial match[4][5] and then later appeared for the New Zealand Barbarians against the Black Ferns.[6][2]
For 2021 she was selected for the Black Ferns squad for two test matches against England and France.[7][8] She was contracted by the Hurricanes Poua for their first-ever women's squad for the inaugural season of Super Rugby Aupiki.[9]
Hohaia received her first fulltime Black Ferns contract in 2023, she was one of three players whose names were finalised to join the contracted group.[10] She was selected in the Black Ferns 30-player squad to compete in the Pacific Four Series and O’Reilly Cup.[11][12] She made her international debut against Australia on 29 June 2023 at Brisbane.[13][14] She then featured in her sides 21–52 victory over Canada at the Pacific Four Series in Ottawa.[15][16]