Create an experience with Hilisha Samoa

Hilisha Samoa: High-Performance Athlete and Trailblazer in Women’s Rugby and American Football.

Hilisha Samoa is recognised as a committed competitor and influential contributor to the advancement of women’s Rugby Union and American Football in Australia.

Competing in the demanding pre-professional era of the sport, Samoa demonstrated the discipline, physicality, and mental resilience required to perform at elite level without the structural support systems available to today’s athletes.

Her rugby career reflects the standards of high-performance culture — accountability, preparation, adaptability, and leadership under pressure.

Balancing training, competition, work, study, and motherhood, she exemplifies the mindset of an athlete driven not only by results, but by legacy.

As a Pacific Islander woman in a traditionally male-dominated code, Samoa has also strengthened cultural representation within Australian rugby, contributing to a broader, more inclusive performance landscape.

Beyond competition, she continues to invest in leadership and development through youth work, tertiary study, and creative expression. Her profile aligns with organisations committed to excellence, diversity, and sustainable athlete development.

Hilisha Samoa remains focused on empowering the next generation of female athletes while upholding the values of discipline, culture, and high-performance sport.

Hilisha is an Australian Resident, was born in New Zealand and is of Scottish, Irish, New Zealand Maori, Hawaiian, Niuean, Tongan and Samoan descent.

Hilisha is a dual code Queensland female sportsperson having represented the state in both Rugby Union for the Queensland Reds as a utility forward for seven years and American Football for Queensland Sundevils as a rookie Right Guard in 2024.

Hilisha started playing sport from a junior age in South Auckland, New Zealand where she learnt core motor mechanics and early foundations in sport participating in Netball, Triathlons, Cross Country, Athletics, Kiwi Tag, Rugby League and Touch Football in both school and club.

After migrating to Australia in 1998 as a teenager in 1999, Hilisha attended Mary MacKillop College in Nundah, Queensland where she was College Captain in 2003 and joined the Norths Junior Barbarians girls team in Kedron-Wavell Heights under the Brisbane Junior Rugby Union (BJRU) competition for young females. Hilisha continued to actively play Rugby Union in the women’s Queensland Premier Grade for many Southeast QLD clubs before settling in at her home club at GPS Rugby Union down at Yoku Road in Ashgrove.

From the age of 19 years old Hilisha has been a Queensland Reds, Player of National Interest (PONI)/ Australian Wallaroos development player since 2005, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2020. She also was invited in 2005 to train with the Australian Jillaroos Women's Rugby League program after a successful club season with West Mitchelton and then Souths Logan Magpies but chose Rugby Union.

Hilisha made her first representative side in the Brisbane Invitational Squad at age 18 years old and then her debut for the newly named women’s Queensland Reds Squad in 2005. Hilisha debuted for Australia Wallaroos in 2017, travelling on two tours for Australia in the Trans-Tasman squad to New Zealand where she was capped Wallaroo #152 and debuted in her first XV Rugby World Cup squad in Ireland.

Hilisha has played eight test matches for Australia and gained recognition for her Rugby Union efforts and outstanding performances in 2017 as the Australian Wallaroo Rugby Union Women’s Player of the Year, including 2017 AON Player of the Match vs. Ireland and several 2017 Best & Fairest Awards whilst on tour in NZ & Ireland.

Hilisha is currently playing American Football (Gridiron) for home club Moreton Bay Raptors in Deception Bay, Queensland and is training to compete in the Women's American Football (WFA) International Bowl Game held in the birth place of the NFL, Canton OHIO, USA at the Tom Benson Pro Hall of Fame Stadium in July, 2026. Hilisha has been accepted to represent Team World who will verse Team WFA Pro. This is a pivotal game for Women's American Football where she is seeking individual athlete sponsorship or donations to help with costs for her representation for Team World so that she can help grow American Football for women in sport.

Hilisha also plays Flag Football.

She is on board with Minerva Network to professionally upskill, learn and develop as a female sportsperson on and off the field. Hilisha is also a voluntary coach for the Classic Wallabies and Classic Wallaroos travelling regional areas around Australia to help grow Rugby Union. She was apart of the voting campaign to petition to have the men and women's Rugby World Cups held here in Australia in 2027 & 2029.

Outside of sport Hilisha is a proud single stay-at-home mum and a contracted Author with Austin Macauley and Pegasus Publishers with a poetry collection due to be released in the upcoming years. She also is studying a Bachelor of Music at SAE University.

Hilisha is grateful for her upbringing and sporting experiences and hopes to inspire and motivate families and youth to participate in Sport from a young age that will help break down barriers in everyday life by displaying positive action and behaviours through her own experiences and sporting success and journey.

For media enquiries, partnerships, or elite program collaborations, please contact Hilisha Samoa via Pickstar.