
“There seem to be more people asking me that these days,” Marlie Packer chuckles as we alight on the topic of what life beyond the sport she has devoted her life to might hold. “What is it – you hit 100 caps and get asked what life after rugby is going to be like?”
It feels like a natural question for a player who has, for 16 years now internationally, forged her rugby trade on sticking her head in places that others won’t. Tough, savvy, confrontational and explosive, Packer is the archetypal openside flanker – and even at 34, she’s still pushing her game on.