Tyla Nathan-Wong

He became close friends with Roger Bailey, who would later go on to play 30 times for the New Zealand national rugby league team between 1961 and 1970.

As a result of their friendship Wong began playing rugby league as a youth for Ponsonby at a time when it was unusual for a person of Asian descendent to play contact sports.

He progressed to the senior grades during which time his team in 1967 won the region's premier competition, the Fox Memorial Shield.

That same year Wong became the full-blooded Chinese to play for the Auckland team.

All four of Wong's daughters initially tried playing rugby league but found that their small statue made it tough to handle the physical contact so they switched to playing touch rugby.

Korina and Michele becoming provincial touch representatives, while Sheree and Deanne, represented New Zealand.

Nathan-Wong’s father, Russell (who is of part-European part-Maori descent) played rugby league in his youth.

She grew up in the Auckland suburb of Blockhouse Bay and attended Blockhouse Bay Primary School.

At primary school the first sport that Nathan-Wong played was mixed gender under-nines rugby league, and she was the only girl playing.

She was eventually forced to give up rugby league as mixed gender teams ended at the age of 10 and at the time there was not pathway to continue playing in a female only competition.

Following primary school she attended Blockhouse Bay Intermediate.

Her secondary education was received at Lynfield College.

At Lynfield she competed in athletics, basketball, football and taekwondo (in which she obtained a red belt).

Because of her short statue she wasn’t selected for the school’s intermediate basketball team.

Tyla King (Nathan-Wong; born 1 July 1994) is a New Zealand amateur touch rugby and professional rugby union and rugby league player.

Nathan-Wong was born in Auckland on 1 July 1994 to Deanne and Russell Nathan-Wong.

Her grandfather, David Wong was born in New Zealand to immigrants from Guangzhou.

In football Nathan-Wong played In 2004 in the Metro Boys 10th Grade team; in 2004 and 2005 in the Auckland Weir Rose Bowl Football Under-12 Girls team; in 2005 in Three Kings United 13th Grade Girls Division team, in 2006 in the Three Kings United 15th Grade Girls Division 1 team; in 2008 in the West Auckland Women’s Premier Reserves team, in 2009 in both the United Soccer Under-15 Girls and the Waitakere Women’s Premier teams.

She first came to notice when in 2004 when she played for the Auckland Under-11 Mixed touch rugby team.

Moving up the grades she captained the Auckland Under-13 Mixed team in 2005 and 2006.

From 2006 to 2009 she played for the Northern Pirates Under-15 girls team (which consisted of girls from Auckland, North Harbour and Counties Manukau).

In 2007 she played for both the North Harbour Under-13 Mixed and the North Harbour Under-15 Girl’s teams.

She captained the team in 2008.

She was captain of the Lynfield College team that competed in the greater Auckland secondary schools junior touch champs in November 2008.

The team, which was coached by her mother Deanne lost in the final Manurewa High.

Nathan-Wong was named the most valuable player at the tournament.

In 2008 she was a member of the Auckland Under-15 (which she captained), Waitakere Māori Open Women’s team and Auckland Open Women’s teams.

In 2010 she captained the Auckland Under-17 Girls team, was a member of the Auckland Under-19 Women’s team, captained the New Zealand Under-17 Girls team and was a member of the New Zealand Women's team.

Also in 2010 she was a member of the Māori Touch Nationals Aotearoa Open Women’s team and a member of the World Indigenous Tournament Tainui Under-21 Women’s team.

In 2011 she won the college’s senior girl’s cross-country title.

In 2011 she was awarded the Dux Ludorum honour by the college.

In 2011 she captained the Waikato under-21 women’s and the Māori under-21 women’s team.

In that same year she also represented her country as a member of the New Zealand Under-19 Women's team and in the New Zealand Open Women’s team.

She played touch rugby, tag rugby and both sevens and fifteen-a-side rugby union as a teenager before in 2012 at the age of 18 she made her debut as a professional rugby sevens player when she was selected for the New Zealand sevens team.

During her time with the team, which she captained on a number of occasions, they won the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series in 2012-13, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2016–17, 2018–19, 2019–20, and 2022–23.

With them she won a silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and a gold medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

In May 2023 she was released from her contract with New Zealand Rugby to play rugby league for the Australian club St. George Illawarra Dragons in the NRL Women's Premiership.

This led to her being selected in October 2023 for the New Zealand women's national rugby league team for whom she has played three matches to date.

She returned to the New Zealand women sevens rugby team in early 2024 and is currently the highest women points scorer in the history of the women sevens series.

As well as touch, sevens rugby, fifteen-a-side and rugby league, King has represented New Zealand in tag rugby.