Kalyn Ponga and Stacey Waaka won the men’s and women’s IRL Golden Boot awards for 2026 in Brisbane on Thursday night, November 12. England’s Rob Hawkins took the wheelchair award for a third straight year, becoming the first player in any form of rugby league to win three successive Golden Boots.
Kalyn Ponga Wins The Men’s Golden Boot
The IRL’s 2026 Golden Boot announcement, published by the NRL, confirms Ponga as the men’s winner, the award given to the best player in sanctioned international matches each year. The 28-year-old New Zealand full-back edged out his Kiwis team-mate Casey McLean, Kangaroos full-back Reece Walsh, Tonga centre Rob Toia and Samoa lock Francis Manuleleua, and he did it in just two Tests, in a World Cup debut campaign that nearly ended before it began.
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Ponga broke his arm in the tournament opener against the Kangaroos and returned just 23 days later to spearhead the Kiwis past Tonga 34-10 in the semi-final, setting up three tries and taking New Zealand into their first World Cup final since 2013. He had successfully lobbied to change his eligibility from Australia to New Zealand earlier this year, and he received the award from his father Andre before his team-mates performed a haka in his honour. “There is a bigger goal at the end of this, winning the World Cup, but to win this award in these colours and for this country is special,” Ponga said. “I definitely made the right choice, and I knew I made the right choice when I made the choice.” On Sunday he faces Walsh again, this time with the Paul Barriere Trophy on the line at Suncorp Stadium.
Stacey Waaka Wins The Women’s Golden Boot
Waaka completed a New Zealand double on the night, beating a field that included Jillaroos full-back Tamika Upton, lock Olivia Kernick and winger Abbi Church, her Kiwi Ferns team-mates Raecene McGregor and Apii Nicholls, Samoa utility Evania Isaako and Fiji playmaker Luisa Yaranamua. The pair are the first New Zealand winners of the awards since 2023, when James Fisher-Harris and Georgia Hale took the honours.
The Kiwi Ferns centre has scored nine tries in four games at this World Cup, including a hat-trick in the 32-0 semi-final win over Samoa, a remarkable return for a player in her first World Cup in this code. Waaka, 31, is a two-time Rugby World Cup winner in rugby union and a dual Olympic gold medallist who switched codes this year to join the Warriors. The Kiwi Ferns performed a haka for her after she received her Golden Boot from Honey Hireme-Smiler. “The haka being performed is special celebration for both of us and for them to honour and respect us with that, I got a little bit teary,” she said. “I’m usually the one performing it with them, so to be on the other side, it was just really special.” Like Ponga, she faces Australia again on Sunday, in the women’s final at the same ground.
Rob Hawkins Makes Golden Boot History
The historic first of the night belonged to Hawkins. The IRL winners list published by the NRL shows the England wheelchair star as the 2024, 2025 and now 2026 winner, and no player in the men’s, women’s or wheelchair game had ever won the award three years running before him. He is only the second player in rugby league history, after Australia and Queensland great Johnathan Thurston, to win a Golden Boot three times in total.
Hawkins, 25, won from a field that included French trio Jeremy Bourson, Nicolas Clausells and Dany Denuwelaere, his England team-mate Joe Coyd, Ireland captain Joe Calcott and Wheelaroos pair Bayley McKenna and Adam Tannock, after scoring 19 tries in just three games at this World Cup. His next assignment comes quickly: England face France in the Wheelchair World Cup final in Wollongong on Friday, where Hawkins can add a world title to a run of individual honours nobody in the sport has matched.
The awards were presented at a special function in Brisbane during which 42 of the greatest international players were inducted into the IRL Hall of Legends, with Kiwis coach Stacey Jones, Ruben Wiki, Mark Graham and Honey Hireme-Smiler among the New Zealand inductees. The Golden Boot is judged only on international performances, which is why Thursday’s ceremony landed before the weekend’s finals rather than after them. By Sunday night, Ponga and Waaka will know whether the biggest individual prize in the international game now sits beside a world title, and Hawkins will already have had his shot at one.
