UPDATE: Bonnie’s episode airs this Wednesday evening (15th June). Channel 9. 9.30pm.

Almost a year ago I received a rather strange phone call from a TV production manager. The caller explained that they were making a documentary following the lives of several obese Australians as they tried to lose weight.

The program-makers were providing assistance to the participants by suppling experts such as personal trainers and nutritionists to keep them on the right track, but it was more about each person’s personal journey, and would not be a competition like “The Biggest Loser”.

Part of this “assistance” included giving the participants certain challenges to undertake to help them start leading a healthier life. This is the part that we come in…

One of the participants, Bonnie Coulls, had expressed an interest in playing a team sport, but she felt her weight, 145.7kgs last February, ruled that out for her. That might be true of many sports, but us rugby players see somebody like that and just think “they’d make a good prop”. Luckily the cameraman/producer working most closely with Bonnie had played a lot of rugby in the past, so he came up with the idea of encouraging her to play women’s rugby.

Bonnie was not told she was trying rugby so she was rather shocked when her personal trainer brought her along to her first training session. A write-up of that evening can be found here: “Welcome Bonnie”

Bonnie played with us from early June until the end of the season last year. She quickly picked up the necessary skills and was surprisingly fast, so she was a great additional prop for the team. Unfortunately she took a bad hit in the last game of the rounds, fracturing her collar bone and dislocating her AC joint. This meant she couldn’t play in the finals with us (when we were defeated by eventual winners Sydney Uni).

I asked Bonnie if this injury had hampered her weight-loss effort. She said it did make training hard for about a month, but she and her trainer found ways to work around it.

After months of anticipation the TV series goes to air this week. The first episode of “Big – Extreme Makeover” is on channel 9 at 9.30pm this Wednesday.

Bonnie was filmed for the show every couple of weeks from last February until November. She can’t reveal her finishing weight – we’ll have to watch the show to find out. The actual episode she features in hasn’t been confirmed for a slot yet, but will mostly likely be late June.

If anybody reading this article would like more information on women’s rugby either in Sydney or elsewhere in Australia please contact me via women@waverleyrugby.com.au. As you can see from Bonnie’s story – there really is a position on the field for people of any size and shape.