By Grace Jones | posted on February 21, 2019
NORTH Albany Senior High School student and rugby union rising star Georgia Crosby is one of nine faces that have been promoted by Rugby Australia as a part of the second stage of their Part of More campaign.
The campaign started in March 2018 as a way for the national body to recognise and showcase the hard work of the rugby community.
Ms Crosby said she had never seen, let alone played a game of rugby until 18 months ago when Rugby WA ran a clinic at her school with Dane Lazarus, Katie Barnes and Rhydian Lewis.
“I do a lot of sport and there isn’t much that I don’t do,” she said.
“I did touch rugby for Country Week at school but I never really knew about rugby union.
“After that clinic everything has happened pretty fast.”
Since the clinic, Ms Crosby has played for the WA Youth Girls’ Sevens team in the Youth Sevens National Championship and has her sights set on representing Australia at the Olympics.
“I want to see how far I can go,” she said.
“I think I owe it to myself to do that.”
One of the reasons Ms Crosby was selected to join the campaign was her dedication to drive nine hours a week to train.
Ms Crosby said she wasn’t currently doing the long hours driving due to a torn anterior cruciate ligament but would not be held back from getting back into the sport.
“I love having the space to run,” she said.
“Rugby really is a great sport and gives people something to strive for.”
Rugby Australia Head of Community Rugby James Selby said having myriad voices publicly telling their stories surrounding the sport was instrumental in supporting young players, referees and coaches.
“There are so many positive stories about rugby out there and we want to share them,” he said.
“Georgia is a talented young lady and her journey and commitment shows the potential in her performance.
“She’s an incredibly driven young lady.”
Mr Selby said Ms Crosby was selected for the high profile role due to her passion and drive in the sport.
“You need to have ambition to be successful and rugby certainly encourages that trait,” he said.
“Georgia’s story will be brought to life through medium and hopefully encourage more people to give it a go.
“We could use 1000 speech writers to write about the passion of rugby and still not get the drive that Georgia has for the sport.”
Ms Crosby said she hoped plenty of people saw her in the campaign and encouraged them to give the sport a go.
“You won’t regret it if you give it a go,” she said.
“The more people that get involved in rugby the better.”
