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Opinion
It is said that the bar that sits atop the northern stand at Headingley Stadium in Leeds is one of the only places in the would that it is possible to watch two Test matches of different sports at the same time.
It is in the shadow of that bar at the famous rugby and cricket stadium, about an hour after the Canada Ravens’ last-minute, miracle-try win over Brazil in the recently completed Rugby League World Cup (RLWC) that Ada Okonkwo emerges from the change room with a beaming smile on her face, the epitome of winners are grinners.
When questioned about the heart-stopping game, she describes it as “an amazing experience”, the culmination of a lot of hard work particularly around defence and “closing the gaps”.
Every win is special but as I talk to her on a chilly November night, it’s easy to see this one means a whole lot to Okonkwo and her teammates.
Not only is it the Ravens’ last outing of the competition, it is also their first win of the World Cup.
Like a lot of the Canada squad, Ada is predominantly a rugby union player, learning her craft playing originally for the Winnipeg Wanderers in Manitoba and more recently representing the University of Victoria. It is a testament to her skills and adaptability that her first game of league was in April of this year against the USA.
The delight that Ravens players get from playing and watching both the 13 and 15-player iterations of rugby is a like a breath of fresh, Canadian air to this sometimes-jaded Aussie, who was taught at an early age that people from my side of town do not play rugby union.
In Australia we may be obsessed with code and culture wars but in Canada it is just another opportunity to get out there and play a version – any version – of a game that you love.
Ada Okonkwo’s journey is as captivating as it is inspiring. Born in Lagos Nigeria, she emigrated to Winnipeg when she was 16 years of age and, having heard about rugby from a work colleague at the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, she found a love for the game and a support network at the Winnipeg Wanderers.
The prairie city of Winnipeg seems as if it couldn’t be further from the bustling streets of Lagos in West Africa, lacking the snow-capped and jagged mountains that spring to mind when many think of Canada, yet still not without striking beauty.
The city sits at the meeting point (known as ‘the Forks’) of the Red and Assiboine Rivers, where the rivers can be walked across in January and snow can be seen on the ground for nearly five months a year.
With so much snow and ice around, locals are drawn to Canada’s national sport, ice hockey, with a passion and enthusiasm on the on the high side even for Canadians. NHL team the Winnipeg Jets punches above its weight as one of the smallest markets in the world’s best ice hockey league.
Add to that a Canadian football team that just made its third championship final in a row there is no escaping the fact that this city loves its athletes.
With such a love for contact sports, one wonders if the rugby codes could tap into the sports-obsessed citizens across the city.
As the edges of Manitoba’s rivers begin to ice up and the country seemingly hunkers down in front of hockey night in Canada collectively, on the other side off the Atlantic, Ada is blown away by the reception the team has received in Yorkshire.
“Coming here we didn’t really know how big rugby league was,” she exclaims. “People have been stopping me on the street to tell me they enjoyed watching our game, the reception has just been amazing.”
The inclusion of predominantly rugby based teams like Canada (15s) and Brazil (7s) to the RLWC brings a legitimacy to the competition. In previous iterations of the Cup there were legitimate criticisms that even though multiple countries were represented, there was a distinct number of players based in league-mad areas like Yorkshire, Brisbane, western Sydney and south Auckland.
The women’s teams of Canada, Brazil, PNG and France are introducing us to new and diverse playing groups who are based in the country they represent, and who approach the game with a genuine excitement and joy.
Ada Okonkwo personifies a joy that is sometimes foreign to rugby league types, who seem to complain about everything from referee performances to the beer temperature at stadiums.
So it is with excitement and ease that she answers a question about offering advice to any young women or girls that want play rugby – whether it be league or union.
“I would definitely say keep following your dreams and passion, never give up no matter how hard it is or how old you are,” she responds.
“Look at me – I didn’t start playing rugby until I was about 25 and now I here I am so you just never know.”
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