Ucheora leading a drive for diversity
Ucheora Obi-Wheeler discovered rugby at UCL while studying human sciences and, despite initially hating playing in rain and mud, decided it was her sport.
“Honestly, sticking with it was one of the best decisions of my life. I love rugby for the women who play it, their open mindedness and interesting life experiences. It has had a profound impact, and some of those people are still my closest friends today,” she says.
Despite thinking that rugby wasn’t a sport for ‘Black women like her’, and then being the only Black player in her university team, she was encouraged by the knowledge that England rugby star Maggie Alphonsi, was a leader in the England women’s setup at the time.
“It was somewhere I felt I belonged and when I went on to do my Masters in Clinical Biochemisty at Cambridge I chose Jesus College because it was the only college that had its own rugby pitch!”
“It’s also great to see how far we’ve come with women like Sadia Kabeya who grew up near me, amongst the Red Roses.”
Working in London, Ucheora played for Rosslyn Park and Milwall RFC. Having served Milwall as a development officer one season, she became one of their social secretaries the next, moving “from a very serious role to one focusing on parties!”
Understanding and connecting with people.
With what is now referred to as a “squiggly career”, Ucheora has a CV that encompasses research, charity work, fashion, publishing and finance; and says that it may seem random but it has all been about understanding people and how organisations can better connect with them. Now a senior manager in brand strategy at HSBC, she says it’s a challenging and interesting role that encompasses a variety of challenges as large, global matrixed business – from understanding the impact of the cost of living crisis through to the growth of multi-national corporate businesses. And again, rugby played a factor in her working there, given their sponsorship of the World Sevens Series.
She has taken on an unexpectedly parallel task with the RFU’s Rugby United charity whose remit is to encourage more Black and Asian 14 to 18-year-old boys to get involved in rugby. As committee Chair she says the aim is to create tangible and long-lasting change and set clubs up with a sustainable pipeline of black and Asian youngsters.
“The role at Rugby United has involved me, with the committee, looking a number of competiting factors that affect the growth of the game at the youth level, and prevent boys from Black and Asian backgrounds especially, from taking part. From how rugby competes as an offering against other sports like football, to whether we are focusing on an early enough age to start getting these boys involved. It is very much like my day job where I’m using consumer insights to understand sources of future growth, knowing that people aren’t going to wake up aged 35 and decide to be an HSBC customer – we need to hook them much earlier.”
Never feeling othered.
Ucheora says that she has been aware of some team members in her clubs suffering racist abuse, but she has never directly experienced it on the rugby pitch.
“That is one of the things I have loved about rugby, never feeling othered. Although I’m aware there’s an uncomfortable minority in the game who behave badly it is certainly not the majority in my experience. And seeing players like Zee, Zainab Alema, a great player at Richmond Women. who I played with when she was at Millwall, never drinking and wearing a hijab is an illustration of rugby’s inclusivity. When I look back, rugby has surprisingly been one of the most inclusive environments I’ve encountered throughout my life.”
From a Nigerian heritage, Ucheora laughs at families like hers and Maro Itoje’s, where dads say “but what about your studies” when you suggest you want to take a sport a bit more seriously.
“My dad is now more into rugby because he saw how much I loved it. I think at first he thought it was a phase! And with a few players from Nigerian backgrounds in the England men’s team over the years, there’s a collective pride. I think a lot more can be done off the back of that, to promote the sport in a country that has real sense of pride, but also a sizeable diaspora.”
Ucheora believes that Black and Asian boys and their families would gain a great deal from getting involved in rugby union and that the game would gain a great deal from them.
“I found Beno Obano’s ‘Everybody’s Game’ documentary a really inspiring example of the power of engaging those who are under-represented within our sport. I just hope that we can reach more people and drive long-lasting change through Rugby United’s initiatives.”
She herself, having played wing, flanker and centre in her Union days, is currently playing touch rugby at Catford this season. The pitch motivating her right now is pitching for a more diverse sport.
