He played on with a broken arm, she switched codes two years ago: Kiwis Ponga and Waaka take the Golden Boot before Sunday’s finals against Australia

New Zealand swept rugby league’s two biggest individual awards on Thursday night, and handed Australia a reminder of what it faces on Sunday.

Newcastle and Kiwis fullback Kalyn Ponga, 28, won the men’s International Rugby League Golden Boot, and Kiwi Ferns centre Stacey Waaka won the women’s award. Both were presented at a function at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, where New Zealand’s men’s and women’s teams performed hakas.

The Golden Boot goes to the best international player of the year. This year’s voting did not include the World Cup final.

How did Ponga win it?

With pain. Ponga broke his forearm in the World Cup opener, a 24-20 loss to Australia, and played on for about 20 minutes before leaving the field in the 70th minute. He came back 23 days later and was player of the match in the 34-10 semi-final win over Tonga.

He scored two tries for the Kiwis at the tournament, after scoring six for Newcastle on the way to the NRL grand final.

He beat a shortlist of Reece Walsh (Australia), Francis Manuleleua (Samoa), Robert Toia (Tonga) and his Kiwis teammate Casey McLean.

Eligibility rules let Ponga play State of Origin for Queensland and Test football for New Zealand. He has never played for Australia. He chose New Zealand to honour his Māori heritage.

“I definitely made the right choice and I knew that from the moment I made it,” he said on Thursday night.

He is New Zealand’s eighth men’s winner, after Hugh McGahan, Stacey Jones, Benji Marshall, Shaun Johnson, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, Joseph Manu and James Fisher-Harris. Jones is now his coach.

Who is Stacey Waaka?

A champion in another code first. Before switching to league in 2024, Waaka won Olympic sevens gold twice, a Commonwealth Games gold, a sevens World Cup and two 15-a-side World Cups with New Zealand.

In 2026 she scored nine tries in 10 NRLW games for the Warriors, then nine more in four World Cup matches, a big reason the Kiwi Ferns are in the final.

She is the third New Zealander to win the women’s Golden Boot, after Raecene McGregor and Georgia Hale. She said the Ferns’ haka on Thursday night was the first time she had stood in front of it, and that it hit her hard.

What does it mean for Australia?

Two finals against the same opponent on the same day. The Kangaroos beat New Zealand by four points in the tournament opener, with Ponga playing the last part of that game on a broken arm. On Sunday the year’s best international player will be at fullback for the Kiwis, with Walsh, the Australian he beat for the award, opposite him.

The Jillaroos face a Ferns centre who has scored more than two tries a game at this World Cup.