The Papua New Guinea women’s rugby league dominated Canada on Wednesday, winning their first-ever game at the Rugby League World Cup 34 -12.
However, their triumph is more about than just the sport: ‘The Orchids’ are showing PNG women that anything is possible.
Last World Cup, they chipped at the glass ceiling but 2022 could be the year they smash through.
Their success is borne out of sacrifice, illustrated perfectly as Sera Koroi looks at her baby son’s squishy little face. It’s his first birthday and he’s all smiles and giggles.
PNG Orchids lock Ua Ravu puts one over the line at the 47th minute. (Supplied: PNG Orchids Media)
However, 20-year-old Koroi is looking at him from her phone across the other side of the world.
She’s on a video call in Leeds, her base for the past three weeks as she prepares to make her debut with the PNG Orchids at the World Cup.
The big sacrifice has been tough on her, but she’s fulfilling a dream to represent her mother’s birth country.
“I would not be here without my parents — they and my three younger siblings are taking care of my son,” Koroi said.
“My parents have always been 100 per cent supportive, because they know I can make a career out of rugby league.”
The Orchids’ Sera Koroi, 20, is juggling being a mum to her one-year-old and fulfilling her rugby league dreams representing Papua New Guinea.(Getty Images: 2022 RLWC)
Here are five things to know about this trailblazing team.
1. A quarter of the current Orchids squad are also raising young children
Every member of the PNG Orchids is showing young girls back home they can be more than a mum and wife.
Women who play representative rugby league across the world often experience negative stereotyping, inequality of pay and funding, or having to juggle a full-time job and raising kids.
However, PNG women also must overcome entrenched beliefs about gender and sport and, at times, brazen sexism.
“Culturally, our place is at home looking after the kids. We were brought up in a way to never question,” Orchids captain Elsie Albert said.
“But I think its gradually changing and more women are stepping up, not just in sports arena but in government and non-government organisations as well.”
There are slow signs of change. This year the PNG parliament elected two women. Two out of 118 and only nine women have ever been elected since PNG’s independence in 1975.
Most women in PNG experience physical and sexual violence at rates almost twice the global average. The web of violence is intertwined with high poverty rates, lack of basic services and poor literacy and education.
These problems plague remote PNG, especially the highlands provinces, where several of the current Orchids squad hail from, including the team’s captain, Albert, and vice-captain Gloria Kaupa.
2. The first Orchids were ridiculed in PNG
At the Orchids debut game in Port Moresby, they were booed and had objects thrown at them.
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The women who formed the first squad of Orchids back in 2017 showed bravery on and off the field as they received persistent negative and sexist comments on social media and from within their communities.
Their first squad assembled just a few months before the 2017 World Cup and did not win a game.
The disappointing result was not a surprise because, as well as their on-field performance, the players were playing to validate their right to exist.
A documentary film, Power Meri, was made about the Orchids during this time and details the kind of negativity the team received.
3. They beat England in front of a home crowd of 10,000 people
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The game that changed everything was the final match of the 2019 series with England in Port Moresby.
To an ecstatic crowd of almost 10,000 of their countrymen and women, the Orchids defeated England 20-16.
Founding Orchid Shirley Joe broke a 16-16 gridlock when she launched over the line to score in the dying minutes of the game.
The win kicked the Orchids up in world rankings to number four spot.
Now they are just behind rugby league big names Australia, New Zealand and England.
After the defeating England, the Orchids received a lot more of respect and acceptance in PNG.
4. Captain could be the most freakish athlete the sport has seen
Elsie Albert dominated in the NRLW this year.(Supplied: NRL Photos)
The captain of the Orchids is described as one of the best front-rowers in the world.
She’s a hard-hitting prop who can rack up the tackles. She’s tall and lean but weighs a solid 95kg.
“Her strength and power is something I’ve never seen before,” Albert’s NRLW coach, Jamie Soward, said.
Heavyweight boxing was her chosen sport before her parents asked her to find something safer. She could only find male opponents in her weight class.
The 26-year-old is the kind of player whose talent and leadership can build a team. Coaches say she’s quiet but, when she speaks, it’s with certainty, grace and a big smile.
After leading the Orchids Test match win against England, St George Illawarra Dragons snapped her up. She was the first PNG-based women to secure an NRL deal.
Captain of the PNG Orchids Elsie Albert takes a breather during the Captain’s Run in the lead up to the Orchids first match at the Rugby Leage World Cup.(Supplied: PNG Orchids Media )
Since then, she’s received a tonne of accolades. She was finalist for the 2019 women’s Golden Boot award, named the Dragons’ Player of the Year after a huge 2021 and nominated for the Dally M and RLPA Player of the Year awards.
Albert is also a plant and insect expert. She completed a Bachelor of Tropical Agriculture at the University of Natural Resources and Environment in Rabaul, PNG, before making the move to Australia for her footy career.
5. After not winning a game last World Cup, the Orchids may make the finals
PNG Orchids players embrace each other on the field draped in the southern cross and bird of paradise following their historic first win at the Rugby League World Cup. (Supplied: PNG Orchids/RLPhotos.com/David Williams)
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This morning’s win against Canada is a bold statement of how far the Orchids have come.
At the last World Cup, PNG did not win a game and lost to Canada 22-8. This World Cup they pounded the North Americans with strong defence, letting only two tries slip past while the Orchids ran in seven.
“They thoroughly deserved the victory in the end. There’s still things to work on but you have to expect that at this stage,” Orchids’ head coach, Ben Jeffries, said.
This first win should buoy PNG to an easy victory over Brazil, which will guarantee their place in the semi-finals.
“These girls are here to compete and change rugby league in Papua New Guinea and they will do that,” Jeffries said.
Their success has proven to have had a profound impact on women and sport in PNG and everyone in the Orchids’ camp believes this is year they could go all the way.
The last team in their pool is England, who will be out to win the cup in front of their own home crowd, but PNG will be channelling their legendary 2019 victory against the Brits as a major confidence booster when facing them off this year.
Source:: ABC News
