{"id":662961,"date":"2026-05-11T02:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T02:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/662961\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T02:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T02:12:10","slug":"black-ferns-prop-awhina-tangen-wainohu-retires-due-to-neck-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/662961\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Ferns prop Awhina Tangen-Wainohu retires due to neck injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 28-year-old was ruled out of the Pacific Four Series ahead of the opening game against the United States after reaggravating a previous neck injury. Her decision to retire comes after receiving further assessment on the issue. <\/p>\n

\u201cAwhina is a talented front-rower who has consistently shown what\u2019s possible through resilience and determination,\u201d Black Ferns head coach Whitney Hansen<\/a> said. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s been instrumental in helping us shape this new era of Black Ferns. She has approached an incredibly tough decision with mana and optimism; we thank her for everything she has given to this team. Awhina will always be part of this group, and we know she will continue to contribute to the legacy of our people. For that, we are grateful.\u201d <\/p>\n

Tangen-Wainohu was part of the World Cup-winning Black Ferns squad in 2022<\/a>, but was forced out of the game for two years due to her neck injury. <\/p>\n

She returned to test rugby in 2025 and made two appearances in the World Cup in England<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cAwhina has overcome many challenges in her rugby journey, and it\u2019s been inspiring to witness her return to the Black Ferns over the past year,\u201d New Zealand Rugby chief executive Steve Lancaster<\/a> said. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn behalf of NZR, I\u2019d like to thank Awhina for her outstanding contribution to women\u2019s rugby, both on the field and through her mentorship off it. We recognise this hasn\u2019t been an easy decision, and we wish her all the best for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 28-year-old was ruled out of the Pacific Four Series ahead of the opening game against the United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,260404,22806,303,3326,12977,26046,3899,51226,149588,12976,760,55903,85,320178,320179,319],"class_list":["post-662961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-awhina","tag-been","tag-black","tag-career","tag-due","tag-ferns","tag-injury","tag-neck","tag-prop","tag-retires","tag-rugby","tag-short","tag-sports","tag-tangenwainohu","tag-tangenwainohus","tag-to"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}