Letter that led 22-year-old to Wallaroos captaincy

Piper Duck was thing of a sporting all-rounder increasing up.

Born successful Wagga Wagga and raised successful Tumut, Duck had interests successful conscionable astir everything she could get her hands on.

The five-foot-six teen had a peculiar involvement successful basketball, but erstwhile rugby sevens was added to the Summer Olympics successful 2016 her attraction soon shifted.

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"I was sitting successful my lounge country erstwhile the 2016 Olympics were connected erstwhile Sharni Williams and Eli Green were connected TV," Duck told Stan Sport's Morgan Turinui connected Rugby Heaven.

"I retrieve turning to Mum and I said 'What is this sport? You told maine we couldn't play tackle footy'."

Piper Duck volition pb the Wallaroos aft Shannon Parry plays her past crippled for Australia. (Greg Bowker via Getty Images)

Soon enough, Duck was playing rugby and successful her archetypal tourney met Williams, who brought with her the golden medal she won successful Rio.

The brace shared a photograph opportunity, Duck sporting the medal astir her neck.

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"That was my first-ever rugby tourney – implicit instrumentality girl. I was implicit the satellite to conscionable here," Duck recounted.

"I conscionable wanted to larn rugby. Just a athletics I didn't deliberation women could play oregon was adjacent an option. I got retired present and consecutive distant loved it."

The missive Ellia Green wrote to Piper Duck to person her to play rugby sevens. (Stan Sport)

Still, Duck had an involvement successful basketball.

That was until Green penned a missive to Duck, pushing for her to dive head-first into rugby.

"One of the things we didn't screen determination was we recovered this small framed enactment successful her chamber connected her bedside array – it was a enactment from Ellia Green," said Turinui.

"Apparently she was playing basketball. Someone knew Piper who met Ellia and said 'Can you constitute a enactment to this miss who's reasoning astir playing sevens but she doesn't cognize however she can' and they delivered it to Piper.

"She's had that connected her bedside array astatine Barker erstwhile she boarded determination astatine assemblage that present successful her chamber backmost successful Tumut. A fantastic nexus and evidently they played unneurotic with the sevens."

Madison Schuck (from left), Piper Duck and Jemima McCalman of the Wallaroos. (Getty)

That acceptable the wheels successful question for Duck, who tin present telephone herself the skipper of the Wallaroos.

It's been a meteoric emergence for Duck, who was a comparatively precocious starter.

She made her Waratahs debut successful 2020 and 2 years aboriginal debuted for the Wallaroos. She has since accrued 10 planetary caps.

Duck is expected to pb the Wallaroos for the archetypal clip travel June 29 erstwhile Australia look New Zealand successful the archetypal lucifer of the Pacific Four series, which features Canada and the United States.

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