Linda Djougang’s journey from leaving her mom to journey from Cameroon to Eire as a nine-year-old to enjoying 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 origin 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 could have,” she stated.
“I came visiting 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 may get lonely, however I might been given this chance and needed to take advantage of it.”
The Eire ahead explains that rugby “was by no means on her radar” as she grew up in County Dublin, however she started enjoying when she was 17 and a buddy invited her to a sport of tag rugby.
Her curiosity developed when she went to college at Trinity School, Dublin to review nursing.
“I needed to google ‘what’s rugby?’,” defined Djougang of her preliminary naivety concerning the sport through which she would in the end excel.
“We began enjoying and I did not know the foundations. There are such a lot of guidelines in rugby – I used to be offside on a regular basis till my buddy 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 may and I put the ball down. Effectively I dropped the ball and I used to be like, ‘what simply occurred?’
“That was my first encounter of it and I nonetheless keep in mind it very effectively. I am so comfortable it occurred as a result of it was the beginning of that rugby journey for me.”
