Tia Hinds

Randwick-born Tia Hinds is not the first person in her family to become an Australian representative player, as her mother Janine played for Australia in touch football.

As a result, in her younger years Tia played touch football at six years of age before moving into contact sports.

She played Australian rules football with the Maroubra Saints and was an excellent player. In 2017, she was named in the U15s Australian girls national side as well as being voted best player at the NSW school girls' championship.

Concurrently, Tia’s rugby sevens career had just begun with the Maroubra Magic.

In the leadup to the Tokyo Olympic Games, the impacts of the pandemic meant there were few tournaments to prepare the side for the Games. Tia came away from the competitions with huge expectations after strong performances in limited matches.

She played for Sydney University in the Uni 7s, before embarking on a six-match series against New Zealand in Auckland. Following this Tia played for a Barbarians side against Australia, New Zealand and Fiji in a pre-Olympic tournament held in Townsville.

Following these competitions Tia was fast tracked into the squad for the Tokyo Games. Tia’s elite kicking skills were on full display, as she missed just one conversion throughout the entire tournament.

Australia sustained a tight loss to Fiji in the quarter-finals in Tokyo, but strung a couple of wins together to ultimately finished the tournament fifth.

In 2022, Tia was selected to play for Australia at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games. Tia was once again critical to Australia’s success in the competition, kicking five conversions as the side went the tournament undefeated winning gold.

Tia’s talent continued to show up throughout 2022 as she also featured in the Australian team that won the Sevens World Cup shortly after the Commonwealth Games.

She would unfortunately suffer a setback, after being omitted from the squad for the opening three tournaments of the 2023-24 World Series. However, after injury struck the team, Tia returned and once again illustrated her worth to Tim Walsh’s side. Tia scored four tries and 108 points throughout the competition.

Her most notable moment of the season came at the grand final event in Madrid. In the semi-final of the competition Australia was down 19-7 against New Zealand with little time on the clock. A try to Faith Nathan was quickly converted by Tia to give Australia a small chance. Then Maddison Levi blitzed down the sideline and scored in the corner after the full-time siren, tying the game and giving Tia a tough conversion attempt which if successful would send Australia to the final.

With the weight of the team on her shoulders, Tia nailed the conversion and was swamped by her teammates. Tia kicked three conversions in the final as Australia went on to defeat France 26-7, to record the World Series grand final win and gave Australia the overall win of the World Series season.

At the Paris 2024 Olympics Tia and the team were a perfect three wins from three games in the pool stage. They took care of Ireland in the quarter-finals 40-7 before a strong Canadian team halted Australia's run in the semi-finals, inflicting a 21-12 loss.

In a tense fight for a bronze medal against the USA, the Americans scored a converted try after time expired for a 14-12 score to relegate the Aussies to fourth place.