Ex-Hong Kong international nurtures concrete field of dreams for rugby-playing LA youngsters
The eyes of the rugby-playing world are on Twickenham this week with the Rugby World Cup being played out before a global audience of millions. But thousands of kilometres away, in a sun-baked concrete corner of Los Angeles, another group of rugby players will be contemplating their own personal fields of dreams, which a former Hong Kong international has helped nurture.
The eyes of the rugby-playing world are on Twickenham this week with the Rugby World Cup being played out before a global audience of millions.
But thousands of kilometres away, in a sun-baked concrete corner of Los Angeles, another group of rugby players will be contemplating their own personal fields of dreams, which a former Hong Kong international has helped nurture.
For 17-year-old Nia Toliver, the goal is ambitious but tantalisingly close: a place in the United States women's rugby squad at the Rio Olympics.
For other students at View Park High, a charter school situated in gritty urban South Los Angeles, playing rugby represents a possible route to college, further education or an opportunity for travel.
Toliver, a prodigiously gifted athlete who was named in the first All-American girls' high school team earlier this year, says the physical nature of rugby has given her an outlet other sports cannot provide.
"I used to play basketball but I always used to get fouled out because I was so aggressive. So rugby's the perfect sport for me," Toliver says with a smile.