Salford Red Devils player Darcey Price has captained Jamaica women’s rugby league team for their World Cup Qualifiers.
The 24-year-old made her debut for Jamaica as captain in only her second season playing for the international team.
From Oldham, the Red Devils player was left in ‘utter shock’ when asked to lead the team through their World Cup Qualifiers.
Darcey Price began playing for Jamaica in the 23/24 season after her coach at Salford Red Devils put her name forward.
However, it hasn’t been an easy journey for the player, after a long, time-consuming process, whereby Darcey had to prove her Jamaican heritage, which was her grandfather on her paternal side.
Darcey said: “He died in the early 2000s and it was very hard to get hold of his death certificate.
“We also had to prove my relation to my aunties and uncles who are still in Jamaica.”
The footage of her games for the Red Devils was sent over to the Jamaican committee which soon decided to invite Darcey and two other Super League players over to Jamaica.
Due to her stellar performance for the team throughout last season, Darcey was invited over to Florida in October for the World Cup Qualifiers, where the Jamaican coaches asked if she would like to captain the team.
Darcey was extremely surprised that she had been chosen, as she added: “It was a bit surreal at first because I was like… me… eh? No, you’re having me on here. I thought they were joking.”
Even her friends and family were in disbelief that within only three years of Darcey playing rugby league, she had progressed to being chosen as an international captain.
Darcey Price’s Dad was brought to tears and partner Katy said: “I honestly can’t tell you how proud I am of her, Darcey you have absolutely smashed this.”
The team consists of a mix of Jamaican and international players, meaning it was difficult for the players to initially find common ground.
Darcey said: “It was stressful during that first week because it was my first time being captain and I was trying to get the UK and the US players to gel with the Jamaica lot.
“It was a lot of hard work, but we all did get along in the end.”
“As captain, I do want everyone to work hard for the international shirt, but also to have fun playing. As much as it is on an international stage it can be a lot of pressure.”
In the World Cup qualifiers, the team were up against the USA Hawks, after which the winner would progress to play Canada Ravens.
Brazil had also originally entered a team into the qualifiers however they had to pull out several months before due to a lack of funding.
The funding for women within rugby league is extremely scarce, especially outside of the UK. Despite representing her country, Darcey Price had to do a lot of fundraising to initially get herself over to Jamaica.
Unfortunately, Jamaica did not make it through, losing 0-44 to the Hawks.
As she added: “We played against US Hawks which in the first half-an-hour, we were giving them a good game and then it was just when little mistakes started creeping up, and they started exploiting that.”
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