Catherine Richards blazing a trail in rugby from Abu Dhabi to Wales

Young winger debuted for Wales in Women’s Six Nations against France, having began her fledgling career on playing fields of UAE capital

Abu Dhabi-born and raised Catherine Richards plays for Gloucester-Hartpury in the Premiership Women’s Rugby in England. Photo: Gloucester-Hartpury

Sat alongside the other travelling reserves watching Wales take their first win of the Women’s Six Nations in front of 10,000 spectators in Cardiff on Saturday, Catherine Richards was half a world removed from where it had all started out.

At the same moment, 4,000km away, hundreds of young aspiring rugby players were setting the seal on their seasons at the UAE Rugby finals day in Al Ain.

Scores of them were girls. That has not always been the case. Around 15 years ago, Richards trod precisely the same turf at Al Ain Amblers while taking her first steps in tag rugby for Abu Dhabi Harlequins.

Back then she was one of only a few girls to play, having asked to join in when her brother was training.

“I remember being tiny and the shirts being absolutely huge,” Richards, 23, said of her first experience of rugby for Harlequins, aged six. “I wanted to get involved because my brother was doing it and I felt left out.”

If the mini rugby players of the Harlequins Under 12s rip tag girls side who were in action in Al Ain at the weekend needed a reason to believe there can be a future in the sport for them, then Richards is the perfect example.

She used to be one of them. Now she is a full international for a Tier 1 rugby nation. Two weeks ago, she made her debut on the wing for Wales against France in the Six Nations.

Born and raised in Abu Dhabi, far beyond the sport’s mainstream, she at least had some pedigree for rugby in her gene pool. Her grandfather had played for London Irish.

Still, there was no obvious route to the top of the sport from a region where the women’s game, in particular, was embryonic.

Growing up, she played schools rugby for British School Al Khubairat (BSAK), as well as touch, having started out playing tag rugby at Harlequins.

“The tags were longer than my legs,” she said. “We went to a tournament in Bahrain, with four girls on the team and the rest boys.”

Transitioning from the sport’s non-contact variations to full tackling can often prove a tipping point for young rugby players. Richards first sampled it when BSAK set up a girls team to go to compete at the Dubai Sevens in 2016.

“I think I fell in love with it even more then,” she said. “We were the first BSAK team to play at the Dubai Sevens and we ended up winning the tournament.

“That was a pivotal point for me when I thought that I wanted to continue playing rugby to a high standard, which is why I decided to come back to Wales.

“Because I had such fond memories and an amazing experience of playing in the Dubai Sevens, I wanted to continue.”

Just as had been the case in the UAE, where she simultaneously played at school, at Harlequins, as well as representing Middle East Touch, she could not get enough of rugby.

“I always loved the game,” she said. “It didn’t matter if it was sevens, touch or contact, I just enjoyed having a rugby ball in my hand and being part of a team environment.

“I have enjoyed playing all different types of rugby and I think they all help. You develop different skills. With touch, obviously there is no contact involved but you have to have amazing skills.

“That developed my awareness of space, which I could then take into sevens, then into the XVs game as well.”

She moved to study her A-levels in Monmouth, then attended university in Cardiff, all while dovetailing playing commitments with club rugby in the Welsh capital, as well as playing for the U18 side of Newport Gwent Dragons.

She said the skills she had learned growing up in Abu Dhabi helped her adapt in rapid time to the game in her new surroundings. Although she wasn’t fully equipped to deal with every aspect of the game in the UK. When she arrived, she didn’t have a proper pair of studded boots able to deal with pitches sodden with rain, so was frequently slipping.

Her progress in the game in Wales, as well as just over the border in England where she plays Premiership rugby for Gloucester-Hartpury, has been rapid.

It reached the point where she was called up for Wales for the 2023 Six Nations, only for her to break a hand in training, meaning she did not feature during the campaign.

“In the past year-and-a-half, there have been a lot of difficult times, but there have also been a lot of great times,” she said.

“I used it as a time to build my strength and improve my skills, and improve myself not just physically but also mentally. I had the drive to want to get a cap.

“Now it is about keeping pushing, to go for another cap, then another one, and to keep looking for new opportunities, seeing what I can do with the skills I have got.”

When her chance did come, against France this season, she said she was ready for it and was grateful for the support of her teammates.

“It was a shock, but I felt ready for the opportunity, and that I needed to show what I could do,” Richards said of hearing her name in the team announcement at training ahead of the game.

“The team were amazing. They were all giving me hugs and saying congratulations, all so supportive.

“I had to keep everything in check, and remember what I have been training for. It was about not letting the pressure build too much, and just play the game that I know and love.”

Richards had never even had a replica Wales shirt before, so when she was presented with her own match day one, with her name and the date of her first cap embroidered on it, she said it was “almost overwhelming”.

Seeing her name inscribed on it was a reminder of everyone who had helped her reach this point.

“I wasn’t just representing myself, I was representing my parents and grandparents, who my name comes from,” she said. “It was for them all. I hope they think I did them proud.

“It was to show what the Richards can do, and that is not just me. It is also my brother, who plays for the Dragons. It is also for my parents, who have given me all the support, driving me to and from training.

“I felt the whole weight of the family, but it was a good pressure to have. It made me want to perform and play well on the day.”

It is not just her family who feel a stake in her success. Abu Dhabi’s rugby community do, too. And having a trailblazer like her can only help advance the rapid growth of the female game here.

“If you have visibility, and you can see a strong female role model playing the sport you are playing, you think it can be you,” said Jason Kennedy, the coach of Harlequins U12 rip tag girls side who played a cup final against Dubai Sharks in Al Ain at the weekend.

“When you are growing up playing football, for example, you think of your favourite Premier League player, and you try to emulate them in practice.

“When you score a goal, you are trying to play like somebody. To be able to see the role models they can have, it is vitally important.”

Richards is the embodiment of what can be achieved when talent combines with hard work, no matter where you start from.

She reckons aspiring female players have more visible role models than she did back when she was starting out. Instead of taking her inspiration from rugby, she found heroes from elsewhere, like watching Jessica Ennis-Hill’s success in the London Olympics.

“When I was younger, there weren’t many role models that I would look at in rugby, so I would look to others, like Jessica Ennis,” Richards said.

“I remember watching her in 2012. But now I think there are those role models you can look to who are playing within the sport. If you look at [her Welsh teammates] Jaz Joyce and Alisha Butchers, you are seeing them playing rugby.

“There is also the opportunity now for girls to play rugby, because teams are set up for it.”