Luciia Leaoseve and Shawna Fifita say “league is life”.
The Hillside residents both made the Victorian women’s state rugby league team that took out the recent Combined Affiliated States Rugby League Championship in Sydney.
The couple moved to Australia in January from New Zealand, joining the Truganina Rabbitohs.
Luciia and Shawna were able to travel to Sydney with the state team thanks to a Melton council residents achievement donation of $500 each.
“It was really hard for us to get to Sydney because Shawna is the only one working at the moment and I am still looking for work,” Luciia said.
“We always seem to make it into state or national teams together and it becomes quite expensive. I love this game and, for us, league is life.”
Luciia and Shawna are no strangers to playing top-tier sport, having both played rugby league for New Zealand.
“I’ve played for the past six years,” Luciia said. “It was my older sister that played first and she’d always beg me to play. I wanted to stick to rugby union and netball. But one day, after four years of her asking, I finally decided to attend a training.
“I loved it and ended up in the starting line-up on my first week.”
The Victorian women’s rugby league team will be play the curtain-raiser when the Melbourne Storm faces the Cronulla Sharks in the NRL on Sunday, August 12, at AAMI
Park.
