'Rugby league brought us here': Ua writing next chapter of family story

When Ua Ravu laces up her boots and straps on her headgear she often thinks of her dad Elwyn and how rugby league brought her family to Australia.

The 26-year-old Raiders hooker only played her first full season last year in the Katrina Fanning Shield but the game has had a huge impact on the Ravu family and it is the reason they call the Riverina community of Leeton home.

Ravu was born in Papua New Guinea but moved to the Riverina at just six months of age after Elwyn was recruited to play for the Leeton Greens, and the family never left. 

“I do think about him a lot when I play and especially the day I made my debut,” Ravu said of her father, who passed away in 2015.

“Dad came over to Australia to play league for the Leeton Greenies so it is a pretty special opportunity to play the sport that brought our family to the country.

"I guess I didn’t really appreciate his story as much at a younger age, but it’s something I think about more now.”

The Ravu family rugby league story began in Port Moresby in 1996 when 29-year-old Elwyn was scouted to play for the Leeton Greens by Brian King, a local who was involved with the game in Papua New Guinea. 

It continues today in Canberra, with Ravu donning the No.14 jersey for the Raiders' inaugural NRLW side.

“He would be over the moon,” Elwyn’s wife Lynn told NRL.com.

“I know he would be at every game watching her play. He would just be so happy and so, so proud of her.”

Saying goodbye to his wife Lynn and two-year-old son Shane would have come as a great challenge but Elwyn loved rugby league and the opportunity to play in Australia was too good an offer to refuse.

A fullback or centre for the Greens, Elwyn was taken by bush footy and within months he had convinced Lynn to join him in Leeton.

“I just had Ua and Shane then and Elwyn said ‘we are going back to Australia together’,” Lynn recalled. “I was 20-years-old and I had never travelled overseas in my life and had no family in Australia, I was freaking out.

“I stayed back until Ua was six months old and we arrived in Leeton on May 10 1997, it was Mother’s Day, I’ll never forget that day.”

Elwyn and Lynn had three more children and set up their life in Leeton and the Ravu family became entrenched in the rugby league community.

Elwyn, who played 101 games for the Leeton Greens, passed away after suffering a brain aneurysm in 2015 in what came as an unexpected and heart-breaking loss for his family and the wider community.

When Ravu ran out to make her NRLW debut in a different shade of green for the Raiders on August 6, Lynn felt a part of Elwyn was there too with the father and daughter carrying similar traits on the field.

“Elwyn was not a big guy, he was a little guy. But he was a very, very determined football player,” Lynn said.

“The way Ua plays is exactly the way her dad plays. The way she runs and when she wears her head gear, she looks so much like him.

Every time I see her run with the ball. It just reminds me of her dad.

“Football was all I knew when I came to Leeton, it was all just rugby league because the kids started playing footy also; it was juniors on Saturday and then seniors to watch Elwyn on Sunday.

“Elwyn loved football, he's very passionate about football and he loved the fact that it brought us here.”

Ravu, Papua New Guinea Orchid No. 38 made her second appearance in the lime green jersey against the Eels in Round 5, making an immediate impact off the bench with 12 tackles in her 14-minute stint.

Focused on continuing to perfect her trade as a dummy half in the nation’s capital, the emerging No. 9 is hoping her rugby league journey has only just begun.

“I’m just loving the opportunity to improve my game each week, I haven’t played heaps of footy still so I’d love to keep working hard and try and hold my position for the rest of the season,” she said.

“Hooker is the position I want to nail down, I love having my hands on the ball and being close to the ruck and making decisions early in the play.

“I loved training with Dad when I started to play league tag, he was always there, even when he was working night shift he’d still come and watch and support after having no sleep.

“I feel really lucky that we still had him in those last few years to be there for us.

“And now I still have my brothers who have taught me lots of tips and tricks about footy over the years. If I need any questions answered they’re always there to help me.”