Women look forward to making their mark as well as history
SCOTLAND Women will compete in the Commonwealth Games rugby sevens for the first time at the end of the month, and Helen Nelson hopes the squad can translate some promising recent performances into success in the multisport event in Birmingham.
Nelson and Lisa Thomson will be joint captains of the squad, which also includes other established Scotland 15s internationals such as Chloe Rollie, Megan Gaffney and Rhona Lloyd.
The men’s squad, which was also unveiled at a Murrayfield event yesterday, will be captained by Jamie Farndale and includes Lee Jones, who will be taking part in his fourth Games.
The women’s sevens event was held for the first time four years ago, but Scotland were not included. They qualified this time round, however, and Nelson believes the squad are making significant progress, having come third in the recent Rugby Europe Championship Series behind Poland and Ireland.
“We were disappointed we weren’t involved in 2018 at the Gold Coast,” she said. “I guess ever since this has been a massive goal for us, and last summer we had that massive achievement of qualifying.
“It was a younger squad and a lot of the young girls came through and really proved themselves. I think we’ve known for a few years that there is potential in the squad.
“We’ve got the more experienced players in the squad and the younger ones coming through like Emma Orr and Meryl Smith, and it’s been so good to go out and challenge ourselves against the likes of Ireland, Poland and France, some of the best teams in the world, and we’ve really shown what we can do.
“The Commonwealth Games is the pinnacle on the world stage and hopefully we can go out and perform.”
It has already been a busy year for Nelson and her teammates as they began preparations for the sevens circuit not long after taking part in the Women’s Six Nations Championship. They will shortly face the transition back from sevens to 15s as the countdown to the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand continues, and Nelson explained that moving from one code to another is by no means a simple matter.
“It definitely takes a few weeks, and Scott [Forrest, the head coach] will tell you that,” she said. “There is a lot of contact and smashing into each other in the first couple of weeks [as they adjust from 15s]. But it’s the same skills – passing, aerial skills – but it all gets honed a little bit more.
“From a personal point of view it’s cool to come in and work on skills, and it’s been a massive progression this summer from the first few weeks post-15s to now. We’ve come on a lot as individuals and as a team.”
The draw for the women’s competition has yet to be confirmed, but it was announced last night that Scotland’s men have been drawn in Pool B along with South Africa, Tonga and Malaysia. Farndale is convinced that the competition is wide open.
“In sevens, any team can beat any team,” he said. “It’s tough to really nail down anyone. A team you would expect to be below us, or a team you would expect to be above us, in sevens that just goes out the window, which is why we love the sport.
“Whoever is in front of us, we’re going to have to do our homework and work out how to win. We’ve worked out how to play as a team and we’ve just got better and better, and we’re now at that place where we’re ready to beat teams. We want to go and win a medal.”
The Commonwealth Games opening ceremony is at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham on Thursday July 28. The sevens take place at the Coventry Stadium from Friday 29 to Sunday 31 July.