Women In Rugby... Right Here, Right Now

Vanessa grew up in remote normther Australia and began her rugby journey Townsville, QLD when a university lecturer asked her to join the women's team. She represented QLD from 1996-2009 and Australia from 1996-2007. During her career, Vanessa was awarded the Australia Player of the Year 2007 and QLD Player of the Tournament 2009. Vanessa has continued to lead the way for women in rugby as she is currently coaching and recording the history of the game to improve the pathways for girls and women. She is also a member of the Heritage Committee and the Vintage Reds for Queensland Rugby Union.

Sui as she is commonly know hails from the village of Foailalo from the beautiful island of Savaii. She is currently the captain of both the Manusina and Fetu Samoa Rugby League. Sui is a proud Tamaitai Samoa and mother to three teenage daughters.  In addition to her family and rugby commitments, Sui works in the health industry as a Clinical Administrator.

Mel is the captain of the Melbourne Rebels Super W team and has played rugby around the world. She was born in Papue New Guinea, but began her rugby career in Australia at the University of Queensland.  A few of Mel's key achievements include: playing for the Brooklyn Women's Rugby Club in New York City, captaining the first PNG Women's XVs team at the Oceania tournament in 2016, being the first PNG woman to ever play professional rugby in France, and playing for the PNG Palais 7s team in the Rugby 7s World Cup in 2018. Mel has a background in International Public Health and lists her family and friends as her biggest supporters.

Nicky is currently the World Rugby Women's High- Performance Manager, but has a wealth of experience leading the development of women in rugby. Nicky took part in England's first ever test match in 1987 and holds a 50-cap playing career. She became the Head of Women's Performance at the Rugby Football Union for Women in 2002 and travelled to Rio as the team leader for Great Britain's Olympic women's sevens side in 2016.  In her current role with World Rugby, Nicky supports unions as they deliver their women's high-performance programs and assists in the development of international standard training environments, structures, and practices.   

The former Fijiana 7's player and Captain of the Fijiana 15's will lead the discussion and provide insight from her own playing days, current coaching journey and her time with the Fijian Drua in their ingarual Super Rugby season.