Coffs Harbour besties Kaitlan Leaney and Brianna Hoy chasing World Cup dream ahead of Super W 2022
Not everyone gets to work their dream job alongside their bestie, but two Coffs Harbour rugby rising stars want to take on the world in October’s World Cup.
Sport
Don't miss out on the headlines from Sport. Followed categories will be added to My News.
When it comes to Australian rugby’s best dynamic duo, Kaitlan Leaney and Brianna Hoy are hard to beat.
The Coffs Harbour natives never spoke about rugby union as a career when they grew up together as young spuds at John Paul College.
Little did they know 2022 would be the year they would be part of a Waratahs squad chasing their fifth straight Super W title.
They have now put a Wallaroos World Cup call for the 2022 tournament in New Zealand squarely in their sight.
They’ve known each other for over a decade and ever since they’ve been inseparable.
While they share the field, they also study down the road from each other in Sydney with Brianna doing exercise science at UTS and Kaitlan studying exercise physiology at Sydney University.
If they couldn’t get enough of each other already, they also share an apartment.
“We are two peas in a pod,” Brianna said.
“We shared a mutual love of rugby in high school which brought us closer together.”
It’s been a long road for two Mid-North Coasties who never had a clear pathway to a rugby career.
To Hoy and Leaney it seemed like playing the sport they loved was a fantasy.
“I think back to when I was growing up in Coffs there weren’t those women you saw in rugby so I am very humble to be able to provide a face to name of the pathways going into NSW rugby,” Hoy said.
Both players found a home at the Coffs Harbour Snappers but settled for the ‘reality’ that you couldn’t make a full-time go of a rugby career as a woman.
Kaitlan moved away from Coffs to join the Hunter Wildfires in Newcastle while Brianna chased her own path.
A few years later, that ‘reality’ is slowly changing.
Their hard work saw them enter the field for the Super W Grand Final on home turf at Coffs Harbour International Stadium in July 2021.
When they glanced over at each other, the feeling was surreal.
“Bri and I locked eyes and smiled. We will never forget that moment,” Leaney said.
“We were so excited for each other playing in front of a home crowd.”
The next step for Kaitlan and her bestie is the Wallaroos quest to Rugby World Cup glory, a tournament they have never won since it was created 30 years ago.
Leaney was recently a part of the Wallaroos camp on the Gold Coast and is fighting hard to achieve her life goal of representing her country on the biggest stage of them all.
Hoy on the other hand is coy on that dream but isn’t far behind her best friend.
The highest place Australia has ever finished in the Women’s Rugby World Cup is third in 2010.
Coach: How Raygun trolling impacted my teenage star’s debut
An Australian Olympic breaking coach has claimed worldwide backlash had a “ridiculous” impact on his teenage star’s own performance in Paris.
‘Genuine history here’: NBL return on the cards for Queensland club
A stunning return to the National Basketball League could be on the cards for Gold Coast if the Rollers can secure a stadium in one of the city’s major sporting precincts. Read the full story: