Botille Vette-Welsh (born 13 September 1996) is a New Zealand-born Australian

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

player who plays as a for the

Wests Tigers Women The Wests Tigers Women are an Australian professional rugby league football team, based in the Inner West and South West Sydney. The team is part of the Wests Tigers club and plays in the National Rugby League Women's Premiership. In June 2022 ...

in the

NRLW The Telstra NRL Women's Premiership (NRLW) is Australia's national rugby league competition for female players. The first season of the league began in September 2018 with four teams. The league is run by the National Rugby League (NRL) and is ...

and

Wests Tigers The Wests Tigers are an Australian professional Rugby league, rugby league football team, based in the Inner West and South West Sydney. They have competed in the National Rugby League since being formed at the end of the 1999 NRL season as a j ...

in the

NSWRL Women's Premiership The Harvey Norman Women's Premiership is a rugby league competition for clubs in New South Wales. It is the only state wide open age competition for women in New South Wales and is run by New South Wales Rugby League. The NSWRL Women's Premiershi ...

. She previously played for the St. George Illawarra Dragons Women and

Sydney Roosters Women Sydney Roosters Women are a rugby league team, representing the Eastern Suburbs region of Sydney, New South Wales. The team is part of the Sydney Roosters club and plays in the National Rugby League Women's Premiership. Current squad The Sy ...

and has represented

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Playing career

Before switching to

, Vette-Welsh played rugby sevens for

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a public research university based in Sydney, Australia, in the suburb of Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of S ...

. In 2017, Vette-Welsh represented the NSW City side while playing for Cronulla-Caringbah.

2018

In 2018, Vette-Welsh played for Cabramatta in the

and represented NSW City at the Women's National Championships. In Round 1 of the 2018 NRL Women's Premiership, Vette-Welsh made her debut for the

Sydney Roosters The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional Rugby league, Rugby League Football Club based in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) and parts of inner Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The Roosters have won ...

, starting at fullback in their 10–4 loss to the

New Zealand Warriors The New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as ...

2019

On 15 February, Vette-Welsh started at for the Māori All Stars in their 8–4 win over the Indigenous All Stars. On 18 March, she joined the

team. In May, she represented NSW City at the Women's National Championships. On 14 June, she joined the

St George Illawarra Dragons The St. George Illawarra Dragons is an Australian professional rugby league football club, representing both the Illawarra and St George regions of New South Wales. The club has competed in the National Rugby League since 1999 after a joint- ...

NRLW team. On 21 June, she made her

State of Origin A State of Origin competition is a type of sporting event between players representing their state or territory. State of Origin began in Australian rules football on 8 October 1977 between Western Australia (WA) and Victoria, at Subiaco Oval ...

debut for

. In October, she represented

at the

2019 Rugby League World Cup 9s The 2019 Rugby League World Cup 9s was the first staging of the Rugby League World Cup 9s tournament and took place on 18 and 19 October 2019 at Sydney's Bankwest Stadium. The tournament featured teams from 12 International Rugby League member ...

. On 25 October, she made her Test debut for Australia in a 8–28 win over

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

2020

On 22 February, Vette-Welsh started at for the Māori All Stars in their 4–10 loss to the Indigenous All Stars. On 22 September, Vette-Welsh re-joined the Roosters NRLW team. On 25 October, she started at in the Roosters' 10–20 Grand Final loss to the

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos Rugby League Football Club Ltd., commonly referred to as the Broncos, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos play in Australia's elite com ...

. On 13 November, she started at and scored a try for New South Wales in their 18–24

loss to Queensland.

2021

On 20 February, she represented the Māori All Stars in their 24–0 win over the Indigenous All Stars.

2023

As early as 2021, Wests Tigers Board Chairperson, Lee Hagipantelis, stated he was hoping to build the club's WNRL team around Vette-Welsh. He said, "Bo Vette-Welsh is one of those players, whether it be in the men or women's game, that draws you to watch rugby league. The way she leads that team around the park, you want to go and watch her specifically." In July 2023, she was named as co-captain, with

Kezie Apps Kezie Apps (born 4 February 1991) is an Australian rugby league footballer who plays as a for the St George Illawarra Dragons in the NRL Women's Premiership and the Wests Tigers in the NSWRL Women's Premiership. She is an Australian internati ...

, of the Wests Tigers in their inaugural NRLW season. She said, "We're not here to be a number, we’re not here to just compete against clubs. We’re here to represent the Wests Tigers and do a good job at it. I think we have got all the capabilities in the world to win a premiership." Vette-Welsh had missed the entirety of the 2022 season with an ACL injury and played limited minutes in the club's only pre-season trial. Six minutes into the first game, she scored the inaugural try for the NRLW team, and was said to be "enormous" as she set up another four.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vette-Welsh, Botille 1996 births Living people Australia women's national rugby league team players New South Wales Rugby League State of Origin Women players New Zealand Māori rugby league players New Zealand female rugby league players People from Kaitaia Rugby league fullbacks Rugby league players from Northland Region Sydney Roosters (NRLW) players St. George Illawarra Dragons (NRLW) players Wests Tigers (NRLW) players Wests Tigers NSWRL Women's Premiership players