FOR Rikka Lamb-Lane, playing League Tag for Dubbo CYMS and the Western Rams is one thing, but wearing an Australian shirt takes her love for sport to another level.
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On July 4, Lamb-Lane and her teammates will leave for Ireland on an Australian Oztag tour which will involve six teams wearing their national colours.
The agile outside back, regularly one of CYMS’ best in Group 11, has been fundraising along with her club is thrilled to be heading overseas for another sporting competition.
Lamb-Lane played for an Australian under 21s Indigenous Oztag side at the Oceania Cup last November while she also attended two international netball tournaments when she was younger.
Following on from the Oceania Cup, Lamb-Lane travelled back and forth to Newcastle during the off-season to train and play and the chance to play for Australia in Oztag followed.
“I played with Newcastle in the State championships and they picked the Australian team to tour Ireland from there,” she said.
“Although I’ve be leaving my CYMS girls to carry the load in Group 11 for a time, I’m really looking forward to the overseas trip.
“It’s been a lot of travel and work for Oztag and it’s nice to be rewarded for all that hard work.
“Oztag isn’t all that different to League Tag but with only eight players it’s obviously a lot quicker.”
Six Australian teams are on the tour which will include matches against regional Irish teams as well as many off-field experiences, including visits to the cities of Cork, Limerick, Galway and Dublin.
The Aussie teams will also take part in the famous Pig-n-Porter event in Limerick, the world’s largest Tag Rugby festival.
The feature of the tour though will be the tri-series against the Irish and Great Britain Oztag sides.
It all makes for another incredible opportunity for Lamb-Lane, who is just 20 and has come a long way from her younger years at Goodooga.
She showed promise in a number of sports during her school years at Red Bend College at Forbes while away from competition, Lamb-Lane went on to finish her preliminary studies on the road to joining the NSW Police Force.
Those plans are on hold at the moment as she continues working with the Wellington Area Health Care Services (WAHCS) and the QuitBFit initiative that promotes a healthy lifestyle and the choice to not smoke among young Indigenous people.
“When I came to Dubbo, League Tag was starting up in Group 11 and I’ve been part of the CYMS team for the past two years,” she said.
“We made the grand final last year and this year I’ve also made the Western Rams representative team for the Country Championships, winning our first two games.”
