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Dream massive Leinster and Ireland player, Linda Djougang, BSc (2020), talks to Luke Sheehan about juggling nursing and rugby and only taking up the game in her late teens F or Linda Djougang, life has moved fast. The Ireland International and Leinster prop is 26 this year and only started playing rugby in her late teens. A Six Nations veteran, she has become a face of the women’s game, who balances a demanding training regime with a career as a nurse. She counts her curiosity as the inner force that guided her into astonishing success in an unexpected sport which she took up late, while leading a parallel life on the ward in Tallaght Hospital. Born in Cameroon, Linda grew up speaking French and followed her father to Ireland, aged nine. Her taxi driver father had lived in France - a more natural destination for Cameroonians seeking a new start in Europe - before the move westwards. She emphasizes that this country ‘wasn’t the Ireland it is now’ when they arrived 17 years ago. Hearing Linda tell her story, it soon becomes clear that a yearning for physical excellence, competition and team play were all inside her from early on, waiting for a way to shine. She was a natural at GAA and Athletics in school, and the coaches were excited by her potential, but she is one in a large family - she has three step- sisters and a step-brother - and her parents pushed back at the time and commitment involved in having to drive her around the country for competitions. She still threw herself into exercise, though not every sport felt right. She tried cross-country running but quickly found that it wasn’t a fit (though she would insist on finishing each race to the end). That left her with just PE at school. She entered college to study nursing through the Trinity Access Programme and was among four Access students chosen to do an internship with sponsor Grant Thornton. The suits and ties and formality at the accounting firm intimidated her a little. ‘I was so shy when I was working there,’ she insists. Seeking a way to bond with colleagues outside of the office led her to tip rugby. ‘I was googling it, like “What is rugby?” “How do you play rugby?”’. Coming as an outsider into one of the most popular and money-leveraged sports around might have turned others off. Linda’s curiosity kicked in, and the rest is recent history. She quickly showed speed and power. She cites Anthony Eddy, former IRFU women’s rugby director, as playing an important role in eventually opening the door to playing for the national side. Her life now revolves around working shifts in Tallaght hospital and prepping for the next Leinster or Ireland game, while a media agency (Navy Blue) guides her through the fame side of things. How does she maintain a good life-work balance and self-discipline, not to mention self- care? When not caring for patients in hospital, she is clearly dedicated to the daily upkeep of her own physical and mental wellbeing. Two gym sessions a day is the norm - the morning for cardio and afternoon for weights to build strength. She is also a proponent of meditation and has boosted the Tackle Your Feelings initiative for mental health run by Rugby Ireland. Sunday is the day of rest (and Netflix): ‘I can be in bed as early as 5 in the afternoon!’ How would she mentor someone like herself coming up and looking for a place in one of the nation’s beloved sports sides? Apart from the obvious - start to play a little earlier! – ‘I would say have thick skin. It’s not an easy sport. Don’t be afraid to fail. That and hard work. Commitment, consistency and hard work are definitely my big three. And also dream big. Dream massive.’ On the subject of realizing dreams, she picks out a memory: ‘My most exciting moment might have been putting on the green jersey for the first time. That felt incredible.’ When it comes to performance on the pitch, ‘a good tackle’ is where Linda plants her flag. And not just any tackle… ‘Like, proper good, like putting
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I was googling it, like “What is rugby?” someone back. There’s nothing better. That feeling you get after it “How do you play rugby?” world, I’m pretty sure there has to be a young girl with so much potential… but she because you just executed a skill hasn’t been seen, because an so perfectly and you have got the opportunity hasn’t been given to ball back.’ How about playing against her. I feel like if we need more athletes, France? It happened (at the Six Nations) and if we need a fighter, if we need them, we can find her francophone background suddenly came them there. It’s just a matter of giving them the to the fore, as she found she could translate opportunity.’ the commands of the other side’s coach – the Ireland forward coach wasted no time in pushing her toward the French huddle for some light espionage. If she does go for a visit to Cameroon, apart from reconnecting with people and distributing O’Neills strips, she looks forward to eating things she remembers from that part of the world. ‘I She appears for our interview wearing a blue want to try everything, proper food, spicy food. Dublin GAA jersey and it is clear that her love I will gain so much weight, I will probably need for Irish strips, their histories and rivalries, a season to get back!’ has rooted her deeply. In the course of our conversation, it comes to her that if she were to visit her birthplace one day (she has not been back since her childhood) she might carry these Irish colours with her and see local kids wear them, potentially seeding and nourishing ‘massive dreams’ in overlooked places. While not a fan of Martial Arts herself, she has heard of Cameroonian Francis Ngannou, UCF heavyweight champion who is already sparking hope among young people in Cameroon with his incredible story. Ngannou worked in a rock quarry, aged ten, entered Europe through Spain (where he was jailed for 2 months), and lived homeless in France before finding a gym and Reflecting on the full journey she has lived leads to gratitude. She remembers being a small child in Cameroon, making grass dolls with friends to practice braiding hair, and this brings back to her the lack of basics, let alone luxuries, she experienced growing up. ‘I think that when we look at ourselves now, we wake up every day, we have water, we have food, we have a car. You appreciate the water that you’re drinking, you appreciate the bed. Because you didn’t have it back in the day.’ Drawing on strength of will as well as natural power and abiding curiosity, Linda Djougang has already smashed through many obstacles, with likely more on the way. a coach. Asked to name her personal heroes, she singles out Serena Williams as a paragon of dedication and the Cameroonian athlete, Françoise Mbango Etone, 2-time Olympic gold medallist in the triple jump (in Athens 2004, and Beijing 2008). ‘You would be queueing outside your neighbour’s house trying to get in to watch her on TV.’ She is sure that other natural virtuosos, just like Serena, Françoise and herself, are out there: ‘Somewhere in Africa, somewhere in the
