Ruck's family sacrifice to represent Wales

Family occasions don't come much bigger than weddings.

Amberley Ruck won't be present to see her brother Harry and his partner Meg get married on Saturday - but she has a valid reason.

She is in Australia representing Wales women at the Rugby League World Cup, something she's described as the "pinnacle" of her career so far.

And because of that, her family had no hesitation in telling her that she had no choice but to miss the wedding.

"It's one of those things. When we knew the dates of the World Cup he'd already had his wedding booked," Ruck said.

"There was a bit of a discussion. Thankfully my family are massively supportive of me being here, and more importantly my brother is.

"They've watched me play rugby my whole life so they know how much I've sacrificed throughout the years and how much I've given to the sport.

"The likelihood of me playing in another World Cup is slim so my brother said 'take the opportunity and go'. It will be difficult to miss the wedding and I'll be playing with them on my mind."

Wales, playing at their first ever World Cup, lost their opening game 70-6 against England in Perth.

Their next game will be against Samoa on Friday at the CommBank Stadium in Sydney (07:45 BST).

Head coach Tom Brindle has made four personnel changes to the team, with Ruck replacing Ffion Lewis at stand-off.

With the squad set to be given some time off on Saturday, she is hoping to be able to watch the wedding remotely.

"The wedding is on Saturday afternoon UK time which will be around 22:00 in Australia, so the plan is to watch the ceremony on FaceTime and have a bit of a chat with my brother," Ruck added.

"It'll be quite late for me. If I can watch the speeches and things like that I will, but the main thing is to watch the ceremony itself because it's a big thing for us (as a family)."

Even though Harry and Meg and the rest of the family will be busy getting the wedding venue sorted on Friday, nothing will stop them from showing their support to Wales.

"They've all messaged to say they'll definitely be watching. They've all bought their jerseys so that they can put them on to watch," she added.

"I'm sure they'll all be together watching it as a family.

"It would be a nice, early wedding present for them if we get the win on Friday."

Even though Buck, 32, like all her team-mates are playing at a Rugby League World Cup for the first time, it's not the first time she has represented her country on the biggest stage.

She's played for Wales in two Touch Rugby World Cups in 2015 and 2019.

"My first cap in touch rugby for Wales was actually against Samoa, funnily enough in Australia in 2015. It's a bit of a full circle moment," she explained.

"I've also played in the European Championships with them as well. Unfortunately, I was injured for the last World Cup (in 2024), so I was a coach rather than a player."

Buck switched to rugby league during the Covid pandemic and hasn't looked back since.

She plays her club rugby for Cardiff Demons and played in Wales' first ever Test match against England in 2021.

"I just put a rugby CV through to the rugby league side of things and got asked to go for a trial," Buck recalls.

"I did also play rugby union so I wasn't completely new to the physicality of the sport thankfully. I think the combination of my touch rugby career and my rugby union career fits perfectly for rugby league.

"All the aspects of touch, all the aspects of union sort of merged in a way. It's why I think my favourite code is probably rugby league."

On paper, Friday's game against Samoa is Wales' best chance of picking up a result, before they face reigning world champions Australia on Sunday.

Wales are ninth in the current world rankings, while Samoa are fifth.

Samoa lost their opening game 40-0 against Australia in Sydney.

"We know it's going to be a test, we see how physical they are as a team," Buck added.

"Off the back of the England defeat we just want to make sure that we right those wrongs and go in and put a performance that we know we're capable of.

"We've got a lot of talent in this team and for a very small nation I think we do punch above our weight and hopefully we can prove that on Friday."