Linda Djougang’s journey from leaving her mom to journey from Cameroon to Eire as a nine-year-old to taking part in in a Rugby World Cup is an unlikely however inspiring one.
Now aged 29, Djougang has mirrored in an interview with BBC Sport how she left her place of birth for “higher alternatives” and went from understanding nothing about rugby to representing her adopted nation on the worldwide stage.
“Again house you do not actually have a lot, however you admire what you’ve gotten,” she stated.
“I came to visit from Cameroon not likely understanding a lot about Eire.
“My mom put me on a aircraft and I met my dad on the airport, that is the place the journey actually started for me. I left my mom behind, that was a giant transfer.
“It might get lonely, however I might been given this chance and needed to benefit from it.”
The Eire ahead explains that rugby “was by no means on her radar” as she grew up in County Dublin, however she started taking part in when she was 17 and a pal invited her to a sport of tag rugby.
Her curiosity developed when she went to school at Trinity Faculty, Dublin to check nursing.
“I needed to google ‘what’s rugby?’,” defined Djougang of her preliminary naivety in regards to the sport wherein she would finally excel.
“We began taking part in and I did not know the principles. There are such a lot of guidelines in rugby – I used to be offside on a regular basis till my pal gave me the ball and stated, ‘once I provide the ball I simply need you to run on this course and rating’.
“I simply ran as quick as I might and I put the ball down. Properly I dropped the ball and I used to be like, ‘what simply occurred?’
“That was my first encounter of it and I nonetheless bear in mind it very properly. I am so comfortable it occurred as a result of it was the beginning of that rugby journey for me.”
