Full throttle: Sadya Kabeya in action for England
Sunday will be a bit of a homecoming for Sadia Kabeya, the outstanding player in England’s outstanding, Grand Slam-winning women’s rugby team.
Kabeya, 22, plays flanker for Loughborough and England, and was recently voted England’s Player of the Year.
But the former pupil at Harris City Academy at Crystal Palace started playing rugby in her teens at Frant Road, with Streatham and Croydon RFC, and she’ll be back there this weekend to encourage the next generation of Croydon girls’ sporting talent.
Streatham and Croydon are staging free taster sessions for girls aged 12 to 18 this Sunday, May 19, from 11am to 1pm at their ground in Thornton Heath, as part of the Love Rugby campaign run by the RFU.
England, with Kabeya a driving force from the forwards pack, notched up their fifth consecutive Six Nations title last month with five dominating wins, averaging more than 50 points per game.
Kabeya has been playing for England since under-18s level, where she captained her country, before making her senior debut in 2021.
After learning the game at Streatham and Croydon, Kabeya played club rugby for Wasps and she has more recently been based at Loughborough, and also has a regular website column for BBC Sport.
On Sunday, she’ll be offering the benefit of her experience and knowledge to any Croydon youngsters who want to give rugby a try.
Read more: How the ‘Mighty’ have fallen: relegation haunts rugby clubs
Read more: Old soldiers enjoy their rugby stroll around Hamsey Green
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
FREE ADS: Paid-up subscribers to Inside Croydon qualify for a free ad for their business, residents’ association or community group, just one of the benefits of being part of our online community. For more information about being an iC subscriber, click here for our Patreon page
PAID ADS: To advertise your services or products to our near 10,000 weekday visitors to the site, which is featured on Google News Showcase and followed by 16,000 on Twitter/X, email us inside.croydon@btinternet.com for our unbeatable ad rates
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
As featured on Google News Showcase
- Our comments section on every report provides all readers with an immediate “right of reply” on all our content. Our comments policy can be read by clicking here
Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network
- Inside Croydon works together with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, as well as BBC London News and ITV London
ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
