WHAT IT’S LIKE TO… BE A CITING OFFICER
Greek Danae Zamboulis is helping to push rugby’s boundaries
ERHAPS THE most satisfying rugby stories concern people who embrace the game in unusual circumstances. Danae Zamboulis, hailed as Premiership Rugby’s trailblazing first female citing officer, certainly qualifies on that score.
Born in Greece’s second-largest city, Thessaloniki, she knew a bit about rugby because of her French mother, but as a girl she had no connection to the game. Instead, she was a sprinter, and she stopped doing even that when the schoolwork got more serious.
But something was nagging in her mind: this game rugby… I wouldn’t mind trying that. And one day in 2004, when
Pby now she was at Aristotle University, she got her opportunity. “There was a friendly rugby game organised on the big pitch, so I asked if they had a women’s team,” she says. “They didn’t, but they had a few girls training with the men. And that’s how I started.
“There were just two of us (women) training regularly, so we couldn’t play in games. But I was able to play a couple of years later, men and me, in a friendly. I tried to play in the normal league, in the men’s team, but as you can expect the federation wouldn’t allow that.”
Later, she did play sevens with women but her rugby only really took off when she went to the UK to do a doctorate at Liverpool University (she specialises in equine biology). Doing a web search for a team on the Wirral, she came across a new team, Birkenhead Park Panthers.
“We came from different backgrounds but gelled together and had an amazing journey. We went up the leagues, all the way to below Premiership. And after three years I was eligible for representative rugby, so I played for the county and the North of England.”
Injuries put a stop to the flying winger in 2014-15 but now came a new chapter. Back in Greece she had been selected to play in an international tournament involving nations like Malta and Israel. An ACL tear had scuppered her but she had been invited to help coach. She’d enjoyed that, so when Panthers coach
“It will take time to see a big change in tackle height but it’s important. Brain trauma shouldn’t
be overlooked”