Sarah Hirini (; born 9 December 1992) is a New Zealand women's rugby union player and two-time Olympic medalist. She plays for the New Zealand women's national rugby sevens team, and captained the Manawatu Sevens side that took out the 2013 National Women's Sevens title in Queenstown. She was named in the squad for the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup. Early life Hirini was born on 9 December 1992 to Ronnie and Alan Goss. Her sister Rachael Rakatau also plays rugby and played for the Manawatū Cyclones in the Farah Palmer Cup championship in 2021 Her father Alan was a champion shearer who won a Golden Shears title in the 1985 intermediate shearing final. Her mother Ronnie was a master wool handler, winning 53 open finals, including the 2008 Golden Shears open title, as well as competing in the New Zealand open championships finals in Te Kuiti in 1999 and 2003, in the Golden Shears open final six times, the 2014 world championships in Ireland, and represented New Zealand in ten trans-Tasman wool handling test matches. She grew up in a sports-loving household in the Oroua Valley, just out of Feilding. Her secondary school education was undertaken at Feilding High School, where she boarded. When she was young Hirini competed in shearing contests alongside her brother Simon. After leaving high school having obtained a scholarship she commenced full time studies at Massey University, undertaking a Bachelor of Arts in Māori and sports science. However following selection for the national Sevens team, for the next eight years she completed her studies part-time, graduating with a degree in Maori studies. Rugby career At secondary school she initially played field hockey, but began playing rugby after she accompanied some friends who were attending rugby tryouts. “I thought it’d be good fitness for my hockey and also, if I did one more sport I didn’t have to go to homework class after school.” At the end of her secondary education she was so passionate about rugby that she wanted to play it full time, but with no obvious professional career path for women in rugby, she continued played it as amateur. In 2012 the New Zealand Rugby Union organized a nationwide “Go for Gold” grassroots initiative to identify talent with the potential to represent New Zealand in the Sevens competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics, where rugby sevens was making its debut. Hirini who