Forward thinking

Thanks to boarding at St Catherine’s School in Sydney, a young rugby player has been able to forward her sporting career.

Story Ken Eastwood  Photo St Catherine's School

When teenage rugby star Molly Adamson was living in Bathurst, NSW, in order to get to training, her dedicated mum would drive her three hours to Sydney, wait for the two-hour session, then drive her home again. “It was pretty bad,” Molly says.
“I was studying in the car and thinking,
‘I can’t do this in my senior years’.”

So, for year 11 and 12, she became a boarder at St Catherine’s School in Sydney. Although the school of 1,100 students doesn’t have a rugby team, it meant she had much better access to training and coaches with her NSW representative sides, and her Sydney University team. “Coming in year 11 was really hard and being a boarder, doing my own washing, getting lost on Sydney buses trying to get to training and not even knowing where I was,” she says, “but I definitely felt the warmth and comfort of the boarding staff. There is not a day that goes by that you feel alone in the boarding house.”

As a result, at the end of her year 12 in 2025, Molly was selected for the NSW Waratahs under 18s team and contracted to the Sydney Uni team for 2026.

A specialised flanker, Molly grew up with rugby-playing brothers and friends. “Mum raised three flankers – there’s always good banter in the house about who the best one was.” But at age 12, she was no longer allowed to play in a boys’ team, so could only play in a representative regional side until she got special dispensation to play in a school boys’ team for a couple more years. “I’m very grateful for the coaches letting me play with the boys. It made me a lot tougher,” Molly says.

“When I get older, I want to change the lack of rugby open to girls, particularly in rural areas. Girls’ rugby is growing so much. It needs to be talked about a lot more. And our sevens are such a dominant team. But I want people to know how good 15s is – it’s a lot of fun to play.”