‘Princess Elli lit up any room or training session’
WELSH international rugby player Elli Norkett wanted to play in five World Cups – and Wales women’s rugby sevens coach Nick Wakley has said he believes she could have achieved it.
Nick, who coached Elli at the GB student rugby sevens, paid tribute to the 20-year-old talented rugby player who died in a two-car collision between Banwen and Glynneath on Saturday.
Describing her as a “special talent and wonderful personality”, Nick said: “She kept saying to me in oneon-one meetings that her goal was to do five World Cups and I honestly believe she could have achieved that.”
The Wales winger from Llandarcy, Neath, had won four caps by the age of 17.
Speaking about her resiliency, determination and talent, Nick said: “I coached her in the GB student sevens in the summer before I took the Wales women’s sevens post. We took a team down to Richmond to play and Elli was the standout player.
“She was fast, had a very uncompromising hand off and was powerful to boot.
“Unfortunately for Elli she broke her leg in that tournament and was out for a number months. That set her back and she was fighting to get back involved in the sevens and 15s program.
“I can’t express how proud of her I was, and how she was working so hard with our full-time strength and conditioning coaches as well as her extra training with Sinead Breeze (a close friend of hers and PT). Her last message to me was telling her about recent weight loss and how happy she was.
“Her personality lit up any room or training session. I have to mention her family too, she constantly spoke of the support she received. If you were watching Cardiff Met, or Swansea, or Ospreys you would see the Norkett clan.
“We are all going to miss this special talent and wonderful personality.”
Team manager at Cardiff Met WRFC, Cerys Ballett also paid tribute to Elli. She said: “Everybody knew her, she was never in the background. “She was very popular.” Ms Ballett had know Elli for seven years, first through playing and then as team manager.
“As a player she was amazing and used to score hat-tricks for fun.
“You would give her the ball and she would score a try, people would ask ‘how did she do that?’.
“On Twitter you could see that players hated having to play against her but loved it when she was on their team.
“She was the fastest but also so strong. She didn’t need to run around you, she could just run you over or hand you off.”
Elli was studying sport development at Cardiff Met and wanted a career coaching the sport she loved.
Her teammates at the university tweeted: “You will always be the princess of Cardiff Met Women’s Rugby. We all love you so much and you will be truly missed. RIP Princess Elli.”