Record-breaker Ivania Wong has a deep respect for the pioneers of 1996 who made it possible for the Queensland Reds to reach the milestone of 100 games on Saturday.
Incredibly, winger Wong will extend her record run of caps to 40 when the Reds meet the ACT Brumbies in a key clash in Canberra in SMARTECH Super Rugby Women’s.
That’s 40 per cent of the games ever played by the Reds women's team.
If a player like former Wallabies captain James Horwill had played 40 cent of the games played by the Reds men’s team over their history, he’d have chalked up over 400.
Wong’s respect is on multiple levels.
“It’s pretty special to be celebrating 100 games and the women who came before us who allowed us to get to this point,” co-captain Wong said.
“We train at Ballymore with flash facilities and a recovery room at the home of women’s rugby in Australia.
“We hear stories of the 1990s from our Vintage Reds about pushing into bare metal on an old scrum machine, training on the back field and wearing those old cotton jerseys that were like dresses.
“We acknowledge the women that came before and I know I want to carry on the legacy and help inspire the next generation of girls to get into our sport.”
Queensland Rugby Union Hall of Famers Selena Worsley, Bronwyn Laidlaw, Vanessa Bradley and Tanya Osborne all played in that first Queensland match against Canadian province Alberta at Ballymore in 1996.
All offer support around the current team in different ways whether it has been jersey presentations, a timely word on history or sharing the common bond as Reds players.
Bradley is responsible for there even being recognition of #100. It was her diligent work over years that compiled the complete time line of games and cap numbers for the Reds women since 1996.
Centre Osborne played first for the Roma Echidnas before venturing to Brisbane where she forced her way into the first Queensland team which beat Alberta 41-3 in 1996.
Her toe-poking style as goal-kicker also contributed heavily to scoring in the same year when Queensland went undefeated through the National Championships in Sydney with wins over Western Australia (47-10), South Australia (119-0), NSW (25-0) and ACT (30-5) in the final.
Changes to the women’s game are happening all the time.
The women wearing the same maroon jersey as the men seems the ideal fit. Who remembers that in 2018, the women wore red and pink jerseys?
