Ruby Malae Tui (born 13 December 1991) is a New Zealand rugby union player. She competed internationally when the national rugby sevens team won the silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics tournament. She won a gold medal in rugby sevens at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She was a member of the Black Ferns team that won the 2021 Rugby World Cup.
Early life Tui was born via home birth in Island Bay, Wellington, on 13 December 1991 to Marion Mouat and Kovati "Vaki" Tui. At the time of her birth, her mother was a graphic designer, while her father was a musician. Her father is Samoan, while her mother is from the West Coast and of Irish and Scottish heritage. By the age of four, her parents were no longer living together full-time, mostly due to her father's alcoholism. Tui lived with her mother in the house she owned in Newtown, Wellington.
For her education, Tui first attended Wellington South Kindergarten and then Kilbirnie Primary School. Her first exposure to sports was playing football for the Island Bay Hammerheads.
When Tui was about seven or eight, her mother, Marion, entered into a new relationship, which led to her parents permanently separating. Marion's new partner moved in, and Tui remembers that from early in the relationship, he was abusive to her mother.Tui and Thomson, pp. 57, 58, 60 Soon, her mother was pregnant with her younger brother, Dane. She was convinced by her partner to sell her house and move with him to Tākaka, in the South Island, which cost her mother her well-paying job and isolated her from her friends. Her mother bought a clothing business in the town, while her partner lived on a sickness benefit and took recreational drugs. At her new school, Tui continued to play football. Following the birth of her brother, the house was raided by the police, and her mother's partner decided it was prudent to leave town.Tui and Thomson, pp. 60-68
They moved to the isolated house five kilometres outside of the settlement of Canvastown in Marlborough. During the three years that they lived there, Tui remembers her mother working long hours in part-time jobs to support the family while being subjected to continuous domestic violence. On one occasion, Tui herself was punched in the face. The school she was enrolled in only had 26 pupils, and as there were no football or netball teams, in her second year in the area, she played rugby on the boys team.
Between the ages of nine and eleven, she would spend her school holidays either with her mother's relatives on the West Coast or with her father in Wellington.Tui and Thomson, pp. 76, 78, 80, 82, 84, 85, 89-95 It was during one such stay with her father when she was eleven that Tui learned she had a 16-year-old half-sister, Lesh. At this point, her father's life revolved around alcohol, recreational drugs, and partying. Tui was to witness the impacts of drugs on people, drug dealing, and, on one occasion, witness the death of a woman from a drug overdose firsthand. In such an environment, Tui had begun drinking alcohol by the age of 11.
Tui decided she was unable to return to the abusive environment on Canvastown and told her mother she was going to live permanently in Wellington with her father.Tui and Thomson, pp. 103, 105, 106, 121-126 Her mother briefly left her abuser and joined her daughter in Wellington, where she assisted in enrolling Tui in Year 8 at Evans Bay Intermediate before being drawn back to Canvastown. Tui stayed, living with her Samoan grandfather. A year later, Marion (who was still with her abusive partner) convinced Tui, who was concerned about the safety of her little brother, to return with her in exchange for a promise to let her daughter attend school in Greymouth. Initially, she stayed with her uncle and aunt while the 13-year-old Tui commenced Year 9 at her sixth school, John Paul II High School in Greymouth.
Her mother eventually bought a house in Blackball, 30 km from Greymouth, which allowed Tui to remain educated in Greymouth. The abusive partner moved as well, until, following a particular bad episode, the police arrived to take him away. This allowed Marion the opportunity to escape, with her two children, to the safety of a Women's Refuge safe house in Westport. With the assistance of Women's Refuge, she was able to get a restraining order issued against her partner and finally break free, allowing Tui to enjoy a stable home environment. A couple of years later, Marion and her children moved to Greymouth. In high school, Tui played football, hockey, netball, rugby, and squash, as well as competing in athletic events and speech competitions.Tui and Thomson, pp. 139, 153-155 Her great passion was netball, and she dreamed of being a Silver Fern. She played for her school, Catholic Schools Combined, attended the Canterbury Netball Academy, and was good enough to be selected to play in an overseas age group netball tournament in Australia.
In 2010, with thoughts of being a journalist, Tui moved at the age of 18 to Christchurch, where she commenced studying for a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Canterbury, which she completed in 2012.Tui and Thomson, pp. 141, 143, 186 To fund her studies, she had a variety of part-time jobs scheduled around her studies, such as barkeeping, gardening, and labouring. Summer jobs over the recess included postman, lifeguard, and bartender, many of which involved her working 80-hour weeks. Once in Christchurch, she kept up her involvement in netball but found it tough going due to the expense, transport difficulties, and lack of her old Greymouth friends to provide emotional support.
Rugby career In March 2010, Tui was living in the university halls of residence when she was invited by a friend she had made to come down and join in a casual game of rugby being played on the adjacent sports field.Tui and Thomson, pp. 156-160 Among those on the field that day were Black Ferns Olivia Coady, Kendra Cocksedge, Kimberley Smith, and Anika Tiplady. Tui was smitten by both the game and the welcoming nature of the other players. She proceeded to purchase a second-hand pair of rugby boots for NZ$20, and in March 2010, Tui joined the University Rugby Football Club. She began playing on the wing for their women's fifteen-a-side team, coached by Ernie Goodhue, which competed in the local club competition. Initially, she continued to play netball as well until, on 26 May 2010, she announced to her family and friends that she would commit herself exclusively to rugby.
Following the completion of the club rugby season, the absence of Canterbury's Black Ferns overseas gave Tui the opportunity she needed, and she was selected to play at centre for the province. Watching on television the Black Ferns in early September 2010 winning the Women's Rugby World Cup, Tui credits with inspiring her that she could one day be a Black Fern.Tui and Thomson, p. 169
Sevens With that year's fifteen-a-side season having come to an end, Tui was enticed towards the end of 2010 by Goodhue into playing club sevens rugby over the summer of 2010/2011 for the university team that he was coaching. They went on to win the local club championship.Tui and Thomson, pp. 177-180 While playing fifteen-a-side rugby, Tui found that, while fast, she was not fit enough to avoid many tackles, and her 62 kg body was not strong enough to withstand the punishment from multiple opposition players weighing 100 kg or more tackling her. She found, once she had improved her fitness, that the fewer opposition players in sevens gave her the space needed to reduce the chances of being tackled.
As well as sevens, Tui continued playing fifteen-a-side club rugby in 2011, as well as being selected to play on the wing for Canterbury in that year's National Provincial Competition. Tui, however, found it hard to make the starting team due to the province's Black Ferns having returned from the previous year's World Cup. She returned to play sevens for the University Rugby Football Club over the summer of 2011/2012. In addition, with the support of Goodhue, she was able to secure an invitation in 2011 to play for the unofficial Canterbury-based KUSA (Kiwi/USA) Superclub Sevens team that was coached by Mere Baker. She was on the KUSA development side, which completed a Gold Coast tournament in November 2011, losing in the quarterfinals to Tonga.Tui and Thomson, p. 192
In 2012, the New Zealand Rugby Union organised a "Go for Gold" campaign to identify talent with the potential to represent New Zealand in the sevens competition at the Rio Olympics. After receiving a pamphlet on the programme in March 2012, which stated that potentially 14 contracts would be available, Tui decided to register for what was termed the "Sevens Academy" and attended the Canterbury open trial being held at Burnham in early 2012.Tui and Thomson, pp. 197-201, 407 At the trial, she was put through various fitness, rugby skill, and character assessment activities. Of the 800 who attended a trial, Tui was (along with Michaela Blyde, Gayle Broughton, Sarah Hirini, Tyla Nathan-Wong and Portia Woodman) among the 60 deemed promising who attended a training camp at Waiouru in mid-2012. Tui impressed the selectors to be among the 30 who then attended a second training camp at Waiouru. In between, she had played tag rugby and, despite having no Māori connection, competed in that year's Te Waipounmu Maori Rugby Tournament.
Debuts for the Black Fern Sevens Tui made her New Zealand Sevens debut against Tonga in the No. 4 jersey in the 2012 Oceania Women's Sevens Championship held in August 2012 in Fiji.Tui and Thomson, pp. 202-212 She went on to play against the Cook Islands, Fiji, and Australia in the final. For her efforts, she and the rest of the team each received a NZ$2,000 tournament fee. In January 2013, at the age of 21, she was appointed captain of the Canterbury team that competed in that year's New Zealand National Rugby Sevens Women's Tournament.Tui and Thomson, p. 227 It was the first time that the tournament had been held in 10 years. Canterbury made the final four, and her performance led to Tui being invited to several Black Ferns Sevens training camps and then being selected for the team for the Guangzhou tournament held in March 2013.Tui and Thomson, pp. 232, 234 It was not until the final that Tui got to play when she came on for an injured Honey Hireme and scored a try.Tui and Thomson, pp. 238-240 She was then selected for the team for the Amsterdam tournament, which was the last of the season.
She was among the squad of 12 (which included Kendra Cocksedge, Sarah Goss, Huriana Manuel, Linda Itunu, Tyla Nathan-Wong and Portia Woodman) that won the 2012 Oceania Women's Sevens Championship, which gained them entry to the 2013 World Cup in Moscow, Russia, which they won.
Progresses to become a regular player Despite attending several sevens training camps, Tui was not selected for the first two tournaments (Dubai in 2012 and Houston in February 2013) of the inaugural four-tournament Women's Sevens Series.Tui and Thomson, pp. 214-217Tui and Thomson, p. 379 She had already decided that in order to make the team, she had to add muscles to what she perceived as her skinny frame. This led to her working during the university's summer recess, manhandling timber at a sawmill on the West Coast. By the time of Tui's return to her studies in the following year, she had achieved the more muscular figure she desired. This change must have been of benefit, for she was selected for the third tournament of the series, the China tournament, in March 2013. Once there, she remained out of the starting lineup, and it was not until she was substituted on for an injured Honey Hireme in the final against England that she debuted and went on to score a try, contributing to her team's 19–5 win.Tui and Thomson, pp. 234-241