Alena Saili

Alena Saili (born 13 December 1998) is a New Zealand rugby sevens player.is a New Zealand rugby union player. She plays seven-a-side and fifteen-a-side rugby union, and is a member of the New Zealand women's national rugby sevens team.

Saili joined the New Zealand women's national rugby sevens team in 2017. She was a member of the New Zealand women's sevens teams that won gold medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. In 2018–2019 she played five games for the fifteen-a-side New Zealand women's national rugby union team. Saili was a member of the New Zealand women's sevens team that it won a bronze medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. She was a member the New Zealand women's sevens team that won a silver medal at the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Cape Town.

Saili expanded her international career playing for Premier Rugby Sevens in the United States of America, signing with the Texas Team during the 2023 season.

Saili was born in Porirua, on 13 December 1998 to Maima Afutu and Sefo Saili. When she was one years old she moved south with her family to Invercargill. As a child she watched her mother Maima play club rugby for the Collegiate Rugby Club in Invercargill. Maima went on to coach both secondary school and provincial teams. In 2021 she was appointed Southland District Rugby League’s rangatahi (youth) and female development officer. Alena Saili’s cousin Francis Saili, placed for both the Blues and the All Blacks, while his brother Peter Saili placed for the Blues.^{[citation needed]}

She completed her secondary education at Southland Girls' High School in Invercargill.

At secondary school she played aerobics, basketball, netball. rugby union, touch rugby and volleyball. In January 2017 Saili was a member of New Zealand under 20 women's touch rugby team that played and lost of its three games against Australia in a trans-Tasman series. New Zealand lost all three of the games. it was only after her coaches suggested that she should focus on fewer sports that she began to concentrate on rugby union. She played for the school’s first fifteen girls rugby team from year 9 right through to year 13. It was after playing in a high school sevens tournament that she realised that she loved this format better.

At the South Island Regional sevens tournament in December 2014 Saili who just meet the minimum age requirement by turning 16 on the day of the tournament was a major contributor to the Southland women’s team getting third and thus meeting the criteria to play in the 2015 national sevens tournament.

In January 2017, in her first year after leaving secondary school Saili joined the New Zealand women's national rugby sevens team on a full contract. She made her debut at the age of 19 at Sydney In early 2018 she was again awarded a 12 month contract with the sevens team. She was a member of the Black Ferns team that won a gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.