The Rio Tinto Rugby Talent Combine perfectly hit the mark in Gladstone last month by casting the net far and wide to attract talent from country Queensland.
It’s not until you see how valuable opportunities like this are in a regional centre that you realise these initiatives hit the mark on multiple levels.
It wasn’t just teenage girls from Gladstone who made the trip to Marley Brown Oval. Aspiring players from Blackwater, Rockhampton, Gympie and the Sunshine Coast turned out.
And then there was Bella Afutoto Leaegailesolo. Her father Viliamu shared Father’s Day with his daughter by driving her four hours from Emerald to be at the Talent Combine.
“It’s just so valuable to have a combine like this creating an opportunity in rugby for girls in regional Queensland that they might not otherwise get,” said Councillor Leanne Patrick from the Gladstone Regional Council.
“We have all seen our girls and women achieve so much at the Olympics and in the footy codes. A partnership like this between the Queensland Reds and Rio Tinto enables country girls to believe their dreams have a pathway to come true as well.”
In all, 16 teenage girls were measured over a 40m sprint, a 1.2km time trial and a countermovement jump plus rugby-specific drills like catch-and-pass, three-on-two decision drills and tackling.
The progress of a selection of girls will be tracked from here.
“It’s great to see the enthusiasm amongst the girls. This is how my journey in rugby started at a combine in 2019 and it’s already taken me to places I never would have imagined,” said Gladstone’s Sophie Duff.
Duff, 21, returned from Brisbane to Gladstone to be involved in the Talent Combine. She shared the story of her path to the Queensland Sevens team and the opportunities it has given her to play in France, Fiji, Japan, New Zealand and Dubai.
The Talent Combine was overseen by Lachlan Parkinson, the national talent development manager for Sevens, Mari Belessis, a Reds Sevens Elite Squad coach and Nico Andrade, the QRU women’s high-performance manager.
“The three Talent Combines we have run with Rio Tinto this year in Townsville, Brisbane and Gladstone are just the start of creating more opportunities to progress into rugby’s high-performance pathways,” Andrade said.
The goals are tantalising with a 2029 World Cup for women on Australian soil and the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.
A community fan day ran parallel to the Talent Combine and drew nearly 50 kids of all ages from families connected to Rio Tinto.
Rio Tinto has poured more than $3 million into rugby during a positive partnership with the Queensland Rugby Union over more than a decade.
