TYSON BEUKEBOOM

The hard-hitting Canada lock has a new challenge with Ealing Trailfinders

- Words Sarah

PHYSICALITY IS at the heart of Canadian second-row Tyson Beukeboom’s game and if fans didn’t know that before the World Cup semi-final against England last November, they did afterwards.

Beukeboom came on in the second half and made her presence known. She made a sparkling line break, beat two defenders and, while she was being hauled to the ground by Sadia Kabeya, offloaded to keep the attack going. Four rucks later it was Beukeboom who scored. Canada went on to lose that match 26-19, but Beukeboom’s physicality remains in the memory and it was the element of the game that made her fall in love with rugby in the first place.

The 32-year-old did not start out in rugby. Her father Jeff was a pro ice hockey player and so she naturally followed in his footsteps.

“I peaked in height when I was 12 or 13,” she says, “so I was twice the size of everyone I was playing against (in hockey). I took a lot of penalties and got in trouble a lot. My cousin told me ‘you should play rugby’ and I was like ‘what’s that?’ She said, ‘I don’t really know but you pass backwards and you are allowed to hit people.’ I said, ‘Wait, I’m allowed to hit people?’

“So I went out and in my first practice I had no idea what I was doing. My first game I was playing eight and I checked a girl like I would in hockey. The ref stopped and said, ‘You have to wrap.’ From that moment on I was sold.”