Despite spending their teenage years butting heads, Katalina and Brandon are now close.
“To be fair, growing up, we weren’t that close. We always used to fight, and it probably wasn’t until I hit my early 20s, that’s when we were like ‘okay, you’re not too bad. We can work this out, we can be friends’.”
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Now, Katalina says her brother is her biggest supporter: “He’s like constantly proud of me, and he always voices that. He’s very big on taking it all in and making sure I’m just present in the moment, making sure I realise that I’m doing something pretty special. He’s very, very supportive, very proud of me.”
Outside of giving his younger sister advice, Brandon also plotted a secret plan for the two of them ahead of the World Cup. It was his idea that they sit in the same spot for the Wallabies and Wallaroos team photos over the weekend.
“It was a bit hard because we’re different heights, and I’m not the tallest… There was a lot of planning. Because I was like ‘I can’t sit in the back row’, he was like ‘I can’t sit in the middle row’ so I’m glad we’re able to find that front row [spot].”
Brandon has promised Katalina that he’ll fly out to England if the Wallaroos make the final. Meanwhile, their mum, Christine, travelled to South Africa to watch Brandon in Cape Town and flies to the UK later this week to watch Katalina in Australia’s match against the US on Sunday.
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If they make it to the final, the Wallaroos will play in front of a sold-out stadium of 82,000 supporters in Twickenham. It is set to be the largest crowd at a women’s rugby match in history, and outsells the largest crowds at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
“It’s quite amazing because I think it just shows that people do care and do find interest in women’s rugby and people are willing to pay attention and come and support the girls,” Katalina said.
