Around 90 per cent of Kosovan homes were destroyed by the war, and with many leaving the countryside for the city, Pristina become a new home for many. In a country barely a decade old, Kosovo has been rebuilding on all fronts, homes, lives and community. Which is where rugby comes in. Among this first group of expats was Bronwyn Jones, a media and communications development officer and founder of Lynx Rugby.
What makes it different is the diversity of nationalities that sit round the table; the two coaches, Simon and Mark, are from England and Ireland, while others hail from France, Italy, New York, and Turkey. Being Kosovan Albanian, her back story is unlike any of her international team-mates. Despite being very young when the war began, her memories are vivid. Like her fellow Kosovans, her family moved to escape the violence of the Serbian army. They lived in fear, no food, no water and a daughter who asks for food and water all the time.
We were poor, we had nothing, just a roof over our head. It was her English teacher who first encouraged her to take up rugby, as a means of improving her language skills. Born in the Bronx, she first left America for Croatia, where she studied for a second masters in international relations, focusing on the rise of Nationalism in the region.
So unstable had the area in which she was staying become, that she and her Kiwi flatmate had been instructed not to leave their house.
With presumably the New Zealander in charge of the remote, they would while away the hours watching rugby until soon Bronwyn was hooked. Her new passion for the sport followed her when she moved back to Kosovo.
