Rugby in Māori: the ball, a try and the words

Rugby in Māori is whutupōro ‘rugby football’, borrowed from the English word football, and the ball is a pōro ‘ball’. A try is a tarai ‘try’ or a piro ‘try, score, win’, a scrum a kakari ‘scrum’ or kirimiti ‘scrum’, a line-out a rārangi ki waho ‘line-out’ and a tackle rutu ‘to tackle’; touch rugby is pā whutupaoro ‘touch rugby’. Every word below is from Te Aka Māori Dictionary, which lists dozens of rugby terms, from the kicks to all fifteen positions. After the tables come the All Blacks’ and the Super Rugby teams’ Māori names, what the crowd shouts, the Māori All Blacks and the Black Ferns, and the te reo commentators whose words are not always the dictionary’s.

Updated 24 October 2026 · 10 min read

Tap 🔊 to hear an example. Māori examples play Papa Reo, the te reo Māori voice made by Te Hiku Media from recordings of native speakers.

Māori rugby terms: the words you need first

In the Say it column every vowel is its own syllable, except ai and au, which glide together. Say wh as f, tap the r lightly, and hold a vowel with a macron for twice as long. The Māori pronunciation guide explains each sound.

English	Māori (Te Aka)	Say it
rugby	whutupōro	whu-tu-pō-ro
ball	pōro	pō-ro
try	tarai, piro	ta-rai, pi-ro
to score a try	tarai	ta-rai
conversion	whana turuki, piro tautoko	wha-na tu-ru-ki
penalty kick	whana hāmene	wha-na hā-me-ne
scrum	kakari, kirimiti	ka-ka-ri, ki-ri-mi-ti
line-out	rārangi ki waho	rā-ra-ngi ki wa-ho
to tackle	rutu	ru-tu
to pass (with the hands)	maka	ma-ka
to kick	kiki	ki-ki
player	kaitākaro	kai-tā-ka-ro
team	kapa, tīma	ka-pa, tī-ma
coach	kaiwhakaako	kai-wha-ka-a-ko
referee	rewherī, kaiwawao	re-whe-rī, kai-wa-wa-o
half-time	hāwhe-tāima	hā-whe-tā-i-ma
score	tatau	ta-tau
to win	toa, wini	to-a, wi-ni
to lose, be beaten	hinga	hi-nga
touch rugby	pā whutupaoro, pā pōro	pā whu-tu-pa-o-ro
rugby league	rīki	rī-ki
All Blacks	Ōpango	Ō-pa-ngo

Many of these are loans, English words reshaped to Māori sounds: whutupōro, pōro, tarai, kirimiti, rewherī, tīma, wini and rīki among them. How English words are turned into Māori ones, and why f becomes wh, is in English words in Māori.

The Māori word for rugby, and its other spellings

Te Aka lists the word under several spellings, each marked as a loan and glossed rugby football: whutupōro, whutupaoro, hutupōro, putupōro, whanapōro, whanapāoro and rakapī, among others. Rakapī is the English word rugby reshaped; whutupōro and its near twins are football. Whutupōro is the spelling in Te Aka’s 1899 example below, and the one this page uses. Rugby league is a separate loan, rīki.

The word is old. Te Aka’s example under whutupōro is from Māori-language writing of 1899:

I tae mai te tono a ngā tāngata o Karioi ki ngā tāngata o Moawhango kia haere atu ki reira ki te pūrei whutupōro
“A request arrived from the people of Karioi to the people of Moawhango to go there to play rugby.”

To play is tākaro ‘to play’ or the loan purei ‘to play (sport)’, and a game or match is a kēmu ‘game, match’. A playing field is a papa tākaro ‘sports field’.

Try in Māori, and the other ways to score

Te Aka has three words for a try. Tarai is the loan, labelled for rugby and rugby league, and it is a verb as well: to score a try. Piro is a Māori word that covers any score or win, from a try to a goal. Paneke is in Te Aka’s list of sports terms as a try, and also a point or a goal. The points are Te Ara’s, for rugby union.

Score	Māori (Te Aka)	Points
try	tarai, piro, paneke	5
conversion	whana turuki, piro tautoko	2
penalty goal	hāmene whakapiro	3
drop goal	urumaranga	3
penalty try	piro whiu	awarded by the referee

The verbs for the kicks are phrases too: to take a conversion is whana whakaū, to take a penalty kick whana whiu, and to take a drop goal whana whakapiro. The try line is the paepiro or the rārangi piro, and the dead-ball area behind it is whenua tapu, which in its first sense is sacred land.

In 1899 a try was already being written up in Māori. Te Aka quotes this under tarai, with its translation:

Ka tae ki raro iho o te kōuru pou ka whakatakototia te pōro, ka whitaratia anō kua tarai
“He arrived under the goal-post and placed the ball, and the whistle was blown again to indicate a try had been scored.”

One word to watch: piro has several separate senses in Te Aka. As a noun it is a victory, a try or a score; as a verb Te Aka glosses it to be defeated in a game, beaten, score against. It is also, in other senses, to stink, to go out (of a fire) and intestines. Context decides.

Scrum, line-out, tackle and the kicks

English	Māori (Te Aka)
scrum	kakari, kirimiti, taupurupuru
to collapse a scrum	kakari hinga
line-out	rārangi ki waho, whakarārangi, āpititū
short line-out	rārangi poto
ruck	ketuketu, paraketu
maul	mōro, kaunuku
tackle; tackler	rutu; kairutu
high tackle; late tackle	rutu māhunga; rutu tōmuri
dangerous tackle	tairutu
forward pass	maka whakamua
knock-on	taka whakamua
dummy pass	maka māminga
handling error	hapa ā-ringa
drop kick; place kick	whana taka; whana tūānuku
grubber kick	whana ripi
drop-out	whana kōkiri
mark	hopu taureke, whakareke
sideline, touch	tahataha, paetaha

Several are ordinary words given a rugby sense. Kakari is first of all a fight or battle, and the scrum is its third meaning; ketuketu, the ruck, is to scratch around, delve into; rārangi ‘line’ is a line, so rārangi ki waho is a line out. Maka is to throw, which Te Aka glosses as including to pass with the hands, so a forward pass is a throw forward, maka whakamua. Te Aka’s kicks all begin with whana, but on its own Te Aka glosses whana as to spring back, kick (backwards); for plain to kick it gives the loan kiki.

Rugby positions in Māori

Te Aka has a name for every position. The forwards as a group are pou mua and the backs pou muri or tuarā.

Number	Position	Māori (Te Aka)
1, 3	prop	poumua; loose-head pou waho, tight-head pou roto
2	hooker	kaitīkape, kaikape
4, 5	lock	kaiwhītiki
6, 7	flanker	poutaha; blind-side pou kāpō, open-side pou tuwhera
8	number eight	poumuri
9	halfback, scrum-half	hāwhe, hāwhepēke
10	first five-eighth, fly-half	topatahi
12	second five-eighth	toparua
13	centre	topa pū, takawaenga
11, 14	wing	taitapa
15	fullback	whurupēke, haika

Takawaenga, the centre, is otherwise a go-between or mediator, the player in the middle. Haika is a loan from anchor, and Te Aka gives fullback as one of its meanings; why it fits is explained by a commentator further down. Te Aka also prints first and second five-eighth as two words, topa tahi and topa rua.

The game, the result and the people

English	Māori (Te Aka)
sport, game	tākaro
game, match	kēmu
competition, match, tournament	whakataetae
final	whiringa toa
player	kaitākaro
coach	kaiwhakaako, kaiwhakawaiwai
referee	rewherī, kaiwawao
whistle	whio, wītara
half-time	hāwhe-tāima, whakamatuatanga
half-time score	kaute wehenga
score	tatau
to win; a win	toa, wini; wikitōria
to lose; a loss	hinga

Kaiwhakaako is the general word for a teacher, trainer or coach, built on whakaako ‘to teach’. Kaiwawao means a defender, advocate or mediator as well as a referee; rewherī is the loan, and Te Aka also gives it as a verb, to referee. Toa is to win, and as a noun a champion or a warrior; its other uses are in Māori team names.

Touch rugby in Māori

Touch rugby is pā whutupaoro, which Te Aka glosses touch rugby, touch football, or pā pōro. Pā ‘to touch, tag’ is to touch, strike, tag, so both are, word for word, touch-rugby and touch-ball. Te Aka has no separate terms for the rest of touch (the touchdown, the rollball, the six touches), so none are given here. For a pass or the sideline, the general words above serve: maka and tahataha.

Team names: the All Blacks and Super Rugby

Te Aka gives the All Blacks as Ōpango, often in the phrase kapa Ōpango, with this example from Te Ara: Kua nui ngā kaitākaro Māori i te kapa Ōpango i roto i ngā tau ‘There have been many Māori players in the All Blacks over the years’. It also lists Māori names for the five New Zealand Super Rugby sides:

Team	Māori name (Te Aka)	The word’s everyday meaning
Blues	Kahurangi	blue; precious; a treasured possession
Chiefs	Rangatira	chief, person of high rank
Hurricanes	Hau Āwhiowhio	hau ‘wind’ + āwhiowhio ‘whirlwind, tornado’
Crusaders	Whatumoana	bravery (a figurative term)
Highlanders	Kahupeka	a shield: a stiff woven flax mat worn in war

Te Aka has no Māori name for the Black Ferns or for the Māori All Blacks, so none is given here. Its names for the Silver Ferns, the Black Caps and the Tall Blacks, and how a team name is put together, are in Māori team names.

What the crowd shouts

To say go the All Blacks, Tūmamao Harawira, one of Sky Sport’s te reo commentators, told RNZ in 2023 that you say Kia kaha te kapa Ōpango ‘be strong, the All Blacks’. Kia kaha on its own, and its use far beyond sport, is explained in what kia kaha means. The other word for urging a side on is karawhiua ‘give it everything! go for it!’, which Te Aka glosses give it everything! sock it to them! go for it! give it heaps!.

The haka before a Test is a subject of its own. The words of Ka Mate, line by line, are in the Ka Mate haka, and the All Blacks’ second haka is in Kapa o Pango.

The Māori All Blacks and the Black Ferns

Te Ara’s history of the game credits Māori with a large part in its early years: the 1888–89 Native tour, organised by Joe Warbrick, played 107 matches in New Zealand, Australia and Great Britain, and the Natives were the first to wear the black jersey with the silver fern. The New Zealand Rugby Football Union began selecting official Māori teams in 1910, partly to give Māori players an alternative to rugby league. That national Māori side, now called the Māori All Blacks, lost to the Springboks 9–8 at Napier in 1921, toured the northern hemisphere in 1926–27, beat the British and Irish Lions in 2005, and beat England and Ireland in its centenary year, 2010.

The national women’s team, the Black Ferns, won the first four World Cups the International Rugby Board authorised (1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010), a fifth in 2017 and a sixth in 2022, when the tournament was played in New Zealand. After that 2022 win, as an article republished by RNZ recalls, Ruby Tui led the crowd in the waiata Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi.

Rugby commentary in te reo Māori

Matches have been called in Māori for well over a decade. Whakaata Māori (Māori Television) ran te reo commentary during the 2011 Rugby World Cup, and in 2019 Sky Sport offered a te reo option for matches during Māori Language Week, the week explained in Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. For the 2023 World Cup, RNZ reported on 25 August 2023, Te Aorere Pēwhairangi (Ngāti Porou) and Tūmamao Harawira (Ngāpuhi and Te Whānau-ā-Apanui) were to call every All Blacks match in Māori on Sky Sport 2, with the English commentary on Sky Sport 1.

Harawira credited Hemana Waaka, from Tūhoe, with devising much of the Māori sports vocabulary still used on air, for rugby, league, netball and softball. He gave two examples. The line-out, he said, is rārangi waho ‘line-out’, a straight translation. The fullback is haika ‘anchor; fullback’: Waaka likened the position to an anchor, the last line of defence. Harawira also warned that a learner may find a whole match in Māori hard to follow at first.

Where the accounts differ

A broadcaster’s word and a dictionary’s are not always the same, and neither is wrong. These are the places where the sources read for this page part.

Term	Te Aka Māori Dictionary	Te reo commentary (Harawira, RNZ 2023)
line-out	rārangi ki waho, whakarārangi or āpititū	rārangi waho
fullback	whurupēke (loan) and haika (anchor, fullback)	haika, from Waaka’s anchor image
Ōpango	labelled a loan: the English name All Blacks borrowed	pango means black and ō indicates all
try	three entries: tarai and piro marked for rugby, paneke in its sports list	not discussed

The two accounts of Ōpango are compatible: Te Aka records that the word was borrowed, Harawira explains how its parts are heard. For the dictionary’s word for anything else, Te Aka is the reference this page follows; the te reo Māori course at Verbavia teaches the everyday words around them, such as kapa, toa and kaha, with every example played in Papa Reo’s native te reo voice.