{"id":7808,"date":"2023-04-07T00:22:35","date_gmt":"2023-04-07T00:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/womens-six-nations-if-he-can-go-through-chemo-i-can-play-80-minutes-wales-natalia-john\/"},"modified":"2023-04-07T00:22:36","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T00:22:36","slug":"womens-six-nations-if-he-can-go-through-chemo-i-can-play-80-minutes-wales-natalia-john","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/womens-six-nations-if-he-can-go-through-chemo-i-can-play-80-minutes-wales-natalia-john\/","title":{"rendered":"Women’s Six Nations: ‘If he can go through chemo, I can play 80 minutes’ – Wales’ Natalia John"},"content":{"rendered":"


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<\/span><\/span>
Natalia John has won 34 caps for Wales<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<\/thead>\n\n\n\n
Venue: <\/strong>Cardiff Arms Park <\/span>Date:<\/strong> Saturday, 15 April <\/span>Kick-off:<\/strong> 14:15 BST<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Coverage:<\/strong> Live on BBC Two Wales, BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport website & app; BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra; live text commentary on BBC Sport website & app<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Playing England at home in front of a sell-out crowd is all the motivation most Wales players need.<\/span><\/p>\n

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But second-row forward Natalia John has a more personal reason for the fire in her belly.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

If selected, she will be pulling on the red jersey for her three-year-old nephew Morgan, who is battling a rare form of cancer.<\/span><\/p>\n

“If he can go through chemo at such a young age, then I can play 80 minutes of rugby”, John told BBC Sport Wales.<\/span><\/p>\n

John had “Morgan” written on the strapping on her wrist as she made her comeback from injury in <\/span>Wales’ 34-22 win over Scotland<\/span><\/a> in Edinburgh last Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Morgan was diagnosed around 18 months ago and recently suffered a relapse.<\/span><\/p>\n

“He has a really rare form of cancer. I think he’s like the only kid in the UK that has it – they have got doctors in America who are doing the research for it,” John added.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It sucks, but we are such a strong family that lean on each other.”<\/span><\/p>\n

John says the support from her team-mates since has also been “incredible”.<\/span><\/p>\n

Morgan got up in the middle of the night to watch “aunty Talia” play at the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand last October, although John admits “he doesn’t quite understand the rules, he’s more interested in toy cars!”<\/span><\/p>\n

But the <\/span>top-of-the-table clash<\/span><\/a> with England a week on Saturday will be the first time he will see her playing in the flesh since his diagnosis.<\/span><\/p>\n

“If me pulling on the jersey gives him a little boost, then I am going to work twice as hard to get it,” John said.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It will be a pretty emotional one to see him on the side of the pitch.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite Wales winning their opening two games with bonus points, John is under no illusion about the challenge posed by England, who also have a maximum 10 points from their first two matches.<\/span><\/p>\n

A <\/span>record sell-out home crowd<\/span><\/a> has already been confirmed, with more than 8,000 tickets sold.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It is going to be tough, but we are using it as an opportunity to show how much we have improved,” John added.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It is important that we just focus on us and what we can do. <\/span><\/p>\n

“We want to play these big games, we want to perform on the big stage so to get to do it in front of our families and supporters, that love us is going to give us that extra boost on the day.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Natalia John has won 34 caps for Wales Venue: Cardiff Arms Park Date: Saturday, 15 April Kick-off: 14:15 BST Coverage: Live on BBC Two Wales, BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport website & app; BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra; live text commentary on BBC Sport website & app Playing England at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7808"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7808"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7810,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7808\/revisions\/7810"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}