Gina Fabish
It was the late 1980s – Vicky Dombroski can’t recall the exact year, but she remembers the moment vividly. She was 23, a mum of two young boys, watching a seven-a-side club rugby tournament in Taranaki when a voice boomed over the loudspeaker: “Any women want to come down and play a quick exhibition match during the lunch break?”
Where it all began
Without a second thought, she handed her sons to a family member, kicked off her shoes and ran onto the field – barefoot.
“That moment changed my life,” says Vicky, now 61, from her home in Waitara, Taranaki.
“It was the first time I’d had the opportunity to play rugby against other women. Up until then, I was sneaking in lunchtime games at school from as far back as primary school, when the headmaster pulled me over and said it was better I didn’t as it wasn’t ‘etiquette for young girls’. I had to go home and look up the word ‘etiquette’!”
That spur-of-the-moment barefoot match was the spark that ignited a lifelong commitment to women’s rugby – one that would see Vicky become the first, and still the only, woman appointed as head coach for the Black Ferns. More than that, she was instrumental in starting women’s rugby in New Zealand. After the exhibition match, Vicky wrote a letter to the NZ Rugby Union asking them to take women’s rugby seriously.
Big dreams, bigger obstacles
The response basically said, “If a group of enthusiastic women go to a club and ask for support and assistance, they’ll probably succeed. But if a man suggests it, it’ll go down like a lead balloon.”
That was enough for Vicky. She went to Clifton Rugby Club, pulled together a team from Waitara and Urenui, and started playing on Sundays – first in sandshoes and bare feet, then eventually in boots, as women’s club rugby took off.
“In those days, there were very few sports that you could play with 20 other women, and in contact sport, no less,” she tells. “We’d spend a lot of time comparing bruises. We had a lot of fun.”
In 1991, Vicky was asked to play in the inaugural Women’s Rugby World Cup, an unsanctioned event players had to fund themselves.
“The trip was going to cost $6000,” she recalls.
“That might as well have been a million to me. I couldn’t go.”
From player to coach
But the next year, she was made a selector coach for the first official Black Ferns squad (initially nicknamed the “Gal Blacks” by the Americans). She could no longer play herself, having experienced a bad horse-riding accident in which she almost broke her neck and was told she’d have to give up rugby and horse-riding (she ignored the horse-riding advice). In 1994, Vicky was appointed head coach – a role she held until 1995, followed by stints as manager and selector, and a member of Women’s Advisory Board to the NZRU through to 2000.
During this time, the Black Ferns slowly began to gain recognition – and, eventually, results. As team manager, Vicky was part of the squad that won the 1998 World Cup.
“I remember when we got closer to being in the final, NZ started to notice and they’d send our girls good luck faxes. Each morning, the lady at the reception would tell us we’d run the fax out of ink overnight! It was pretty special.”
All in for the game
As well as her fervour for the game, Vicky went to university in her early thirties to earn a diploma in high performance sport – one of the first six in the world – and then a diploma in sports psychology. The self-described “average student” at school discovered that once she found her passion, she found she could focus too.
She juggled her coaching and rugby administration roles with working three part-time jobs – rousie work, and shifts at the fish and chip shop and a butchery – while also raising her boys, Jamie, now 39, and Anthony, 38.
“My kids were raised by a village – their dad, my mum and my sister, who would step up when I was away on tour or selecting,” she says. “I’m so grateful for that – they really allowed me to follow my dreams.”
Vicky left the NZ Rugby Union after a decade, recalling, “I blew out, big time. It was all voluntary, we got a small daily allowance, but it was relentless. I was ready to move on.”
The work isn’t over
She still watches rugby and recently was interviewed for the documentary No Tears on the Field, a documentary about grassroots women’s rugby in Taranaki. But there’s a thorn in her side.
“We still haven’t had another woman head coach the Black Ferns,” she says. “What’s wrong with that picture? That’s not right.”
But she’s thankful for that first barefoot exhibition game and where it took her.
“I’m ever so grateful,” she enthuses.
“Rugby gave me direction, discipline and the chance to meet the most amazing people, including the Queen. I found it late, but I found it. And it gave me everything.”
Debbie Harrison
No Tears on the Field premieres at Doc Edge Festival (June 25 to August 31), screening in cinemas in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and online nationwide. Visit docedge.nz
