Tonia Antoniazzi
Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi is the only British MP to represent their country at rugby, earning nine caps (and one try) for Wales, appearing at a World Cup, and being part of a Benetton Treviso set-up years ahead of its time. Even today, at 50, she can still be tempted to put on her boots for Commons & Lords RUFC.
I grew up overlooking Stradey Park. It’s so iconic, for every game you could just hear this massive noise. It was a big influence on my life. You could even see into the stadium from our house, until they built it up for one of the World Cups. It used to be free to get in at half-time, so I’d go down with my dad for the second half of every game.
My older brother played for Llanelli. He was tall, dark, handsome and everybody fancied him, and he was a bloody good rugby player as well. He had caps for Wales at under-18s, rugby was his life but, unfortunately, he had a really nasty knee accident when he was young and never played again.
Seeing Jonah Lomu come down and play with the Barbarians was amazing. I went with my younger brother and the only reason we went was to get his autograph, and just witness the largesse of this man – and to see how big his thighs were!
I first played rugby at a taster session when I was doing A levels. When I went to university my older brother said to me, ‘now you've got to go and find a women's rugby team’. He knew I was a good sports woman, a good team player and that I needed to go and throw my weight around. The university didn’t have a team, so I joined Exeter Ladies.
Exeter had proper setup. It was 1991, but we had coaches, everybody was taking it very seriously, and the girls were well respected at the club. And it was in the County Ground days when they had the track [around the pitch]. So, we’d be finishing training and they'd then have the greyhound racing. We’d play against good sides too, such as Cardiff Harlequins, before they were kicked out of the English League, and they had future Welsh internationals.
In my third year I went to Italy and played there. I was at Venice University, studying Italian and French. My surname’s Italian but my father didn’t speak it. I found Benetton Treviso women’s team who were the best in Italy at the time. As soon as I spoke to them on the phone, I rang up my mum and got her to send over my boots, gum shield and sports bra.
Benetton Treviso were ahead of their time. All of the sides trained at the same venue, the men’s, the under-20s, youth, and it was all so well-supported and funded, it was something I'd never experienced, to be honest. When I was selected to play for Welsh universities, the coach said to me, ‘we only picked you because you had nice kit’.
I was front row, but I played second row in Italy. They already had internationals in the front row, I really enjoyed it, I got really fit because of the set-up. We even had fitness tests before we were actually allowed to play. That was 1993, and they’d also given us everything we needed kit-wise, even boots. It was a much higher standard than we had back home.
I went to Cardiff University for the rugby. My dad shouted at me because I should’ve gone to another university for the course I needed, and he said, ‘you’ve only got to Cardiff because you want to play rugby, not become a teacher’, and I was like, ‘yes that’s right, I did’.
I won my first cap for Wales against Ireland. We won, I set-up a try and I'll never forget it. Gwyn Griffith was our fitness coach, and I think he couldn’t believe I broke the line, because I was never fit enough!
I was so out of my comfort zone when I got called up. I kind of knew the girls, but I didn't really know them that well because I’d come in at the end of the season. I did have all these self-doubts: am I going to be okay? Am I good enough? Even now, when I go to watch a rugby match, I just remember that feeling and the smell of bloody Ralgex. I just love it, but it stills strikes me with fear. It’s an adrenaline rush, y’know?
I was supposed to be driving the minibus on the day I broke my leg. It was sevens for Cardiff University, but three girls had gone down injured. I had my boots so I had to play. I was really fit at the time, and much older than the other girls – 25 as opposed to 18 – so they just gave me the ball and nobody could tackle me. I was scoring loads of times, but a really good team came along, saw our strategy of giving the ball to me, and all of them jumped on top of me at once and broke my leg. I didn’t play for more than a year.
My next Wales cap came in the World Cup in 1998. We were sharing a hotel with the Kiwis, and they were so well-drilled, focused and on-point, a class set-up. Not to say we weren't a class set-up, but we were light years behind them really. My last cap was during the World Cup, I hung up my boots after.
I did go back to play club rugby after the birth of my son. It was Waunarlwydd RFC, Liam Williams’ club, and I ended up playing until I was probably my late-30s when I finally stopped. I last played for Kidwelly against Seven Sisters. I’d separated from my husband, living with my parents, and they were short and asked me to play. But their props weren't very good, they kept collapsing scrums and I ended up popping a rib, I’ve never been in such pain, I couldn’t even go to the bathroom on own. My mother had to come and get me off the bus like some ten-year-old and she said, ‘I don't think you're going to play rugby again are you?’. But I did!
I played once for the Commons and Lord’s rugby team. It was only fifteen minutes for the men’s side, because it’s very social, and I’ve stayed involved since. I was meant to play for them before covid hit, and even though I’m fifty now I do intend to play for them again, I just love the spirit in which the rugby’s played.
New Zealand have a Black Fern as an MP. I went to New Zealand with the Welsh Affairs Select Committee and got to meet Louisa Wall, an MP, who also played in the World Cup in 1998. We were in the same hotel during the World Cup, so we shared a few stories about what happened back then, including how we stole their mascots, which I may have been involved with!
We played an inter-parliamentary netball match against New Zealand when the netball World Cup was on, and Louisa was an international at that too, so I had to use a lot of elbow against her. But rugby and sport has helped us build a friendship, we're still in touch now, and she keeps asking me to go over for the Women's World Cup now in the autumn.
A lot of things have happened that politicised me. I was taught in the northwest of England (and played for Waterloo) and then moved back to Wales in 2005. Then I lost my dad, got divorced, and just had a lot issues going on – life was a bit shit.
My younger brother was a huge influence on me, he said to me ‘when you’re complaining about your own life, you’ve got to reflect on what other people have’. He got me to sign up to the Labour party as a Christmas present – he paid me £40 – and then I ended up knocking doors for them, and started to see how people were living, what they were going through, and that motivated me. I thought ‘maybe in ten years’ time, I’ll go for a seat’, but then Theresa May called a general election, and I went for it. I’ve been an MP for five years now.
Politics is like a rugby team. There's a place for everybody. And in politics, it’s the same as rugby, I found myself quite comfortable in the front row. But yeah, people of all shapes and sizes and people of all backgrounds are welcome.
Rugby and politics have collided quite a bit recently. I am very, very keen to see women's rugby improve, especially in Wales. I feel very strongly that women and girls in Wales have been let down. I'm going back about four years, and I was looking at the set-up and thinking, ‘does it work? Is it any better than when I was playing?’. And when I was thinking about those questions, the answers were ‘it doesn't look much better, we're not playing much better, we're not getting the support’. It hadn't progressed in 25 years, as much as it should have, and there were a lot of ex-players that were very, very angry that they feel that the girls had been let down.
I was interviewed as part of the review of women’s rugby in Wales. I also brought people to the table for them to speak to, and I think it's important that there are lessons learned. But people need to know that those lessons have been learned. And change must happen. I've spoken to people that said, ‘we don't really look forward to playing in Wales, because they're easy’, but that’s already changed, hasn’t it, we had a fantastic game against Ireland.
I hope that England are preparing for a good fight. I'm not saying [Wales will win], England will probably win. But the Welsh women's team have made a considerable effort, I think their morale is up, their skill level is up, fitness levels have improved as well. And the only way is up for them really.
The progress of Wales has to continue beyond the World Cup. There needs to be a pathway. I’m an ambassador for West Swansea Hawks, a girl's hub in in Swansea, in my constituency, and I was watching the under-14s and under-16s against Cardiff the other day, and the level of rugby was absolutely tremendous. Whatever has gone on in the WRU regarding women's rugby thus far, can't be there anymore, the attitudes have to change, and the opportunities have to be there for young girls like this coming through. We need to ensure they're never treated the way some of the girls have been treated.
Niger Walker has made immediate changes. I've spoken at length lately, and he's making changes for the long term, but he is one man and it's very difficult to change a culture which is going to embrace women's rugby and be fully inclusive. You have to see long term changes that go beyond and one of the things I'd like to see is a Celtic or European League, so that we can get regional women’s rugby in Wales playing a higher level of rugby, and get the girls back from England.
There’s a lot of work to be done in women’s rugby in Wales. And I would like to see the Welsh Rugby Union apologise for the mistakes of the past and promise never to make them again.
