Southport rugby league player Mia Drescher has been given the opportunity of a lifetime after being selected for the first Female Exchange Programme between St Helens and Redcliffe Dolphins.
The 17-year-old student and her teammate Caitlin Maylor were selected by England and Saints’ captain Jodie Cunningham in a bid to gain experience overseas.
The scheme will run from November to April next year and aims to give the girls vital experience in playing rugby league.
They will spend six months overseas and, by the time they return, the Women’s Betfred Super League will be back underway.
During their time in Australia, the pair will be playing for the Harvey Norman U-19’s team which will play in a league style format with the best teams progressing to the final.
This will be played in the Australian summer as well so it will be completely different to what the girls are used to over here.
The pair have created a GoFundMe page – and run raffles at games – to help towards the cost of their trip and have so far raised over £2,000.
Drescher is a lifelong Saints fan and made her first team debut in August against Barrow Raiders.
She said: “It’s an extra 10 games you get to play, so in terms of my rugby career it will really push me to be consistent with more game time.
“It will be a competition where I must prove myself, but I don’t want to stick too much pressure on myself I just have to play how I do and hopefully that will pay off.
“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity, it’s something you can’t really say no to.
“This is 100% a step forward for women’s rugby.”
Ex-Saints player Pip Birchall is a coach at the Redcliffe Dolphins so will be a familiar face for Drescher once she makes it over to Queensland.
She said: “I’m only 17, it’s obviously hard to leave my family for that long, so a familiar face will be a help.”
Back in March England faced Australia in Las Vegas where they ended up getting 17 tries sent past them making the final score 90-4 with the first time the sides had met since 2017.
Drescher said: “If we go over there it would be nice to show them that it wasn’t something to put every England person down to.”
Fundraiser by Joanne Maylor : Caitlin and Mia’s St Helens RFLC Female Player Exchange
