Wright in no rush back from work on wards
MOLLY WRIGHT became the latest in a long-line of ‘kilted Kiwis’ in January when scoring a try off the bench on her Scotland Women’s team debut against Spain in a Six Nations warm-up clash. It was a remarkable achievement given that only a few years earlier she assumed that her playing days had fizzled out.
The 29-year-old went on to make two more substitute appearances against Ireland and England during the
Six Nations and was really beginning to build momentum in the international game when the Covid-19 crisis hit and rugby ground to a halt. However, her day job as a physiotherapist for the NHS means that Wright’s personal disappointment at the way the season has panned out has been firmly kept in perspective.
“I don’t think that it really bothers me that much,” she replies, when asked about when she hopes to get back playing. “I’m not sure that this virus is going anywhere quickly and I wouldn’t want to rush back to rugby just for my own enjoyment of the game.
“This disease has taken so many lives already and I wouldn’t want to be a part of spreading it. So, in terms of would I like rugby to come back? Yes, but only when it is safe to do so.
“I don’t know if it’s fully out of mind in that there’s still lots that we’re doing to keep in touch as a team – we’re in regular contact with our teammates for [online] training sessions – but obviously in my role it’s pretty much on the background right now.”
Wright has been re-deployed from her usual job working in a physio clinic to a rehab hospital, helping significantly impaired patients to reach a stage where they can return home. Some, but by no means all, of the individuals she deals with have had the virus.
“We have an opportunity to help, make a difference for people in a time that is a bit strange,” she says. “So, yes, it is difficult, but I’ve worked on wards before so it’s not unfamiliar. I’m still at work so I still have some structure in my days which I appreciate makes me quite lucky.
“The biggest change for me is training. I’ve been fitted out with running and resistance training programmes so my mornings are spent doing resistance, then I go to work, then I do my running. It’s different that I don’t see my pals and don’t train with the girls, but still pretty structured,” she adds.
Wright’s first port of call when she arrived in Scotland in January 2017 was Dumfries, but it wasn’t until she moved to Edinburgh that August that she returned to the game she had first learned as a four year-old in her hometown of Reefton, on the west coast of New Zealand’s South Island.
“Moving to Edinburgh, my flatmate was sick of seeing my face in the house and very much nudged me out the door in the direction of Watsonians,” she explains. “So, if you had asked me about this [playing for Scotland] three or four years ago I would have said: ‘no chance’. It is just an opportunity that I was very lucky to pick up.
“I don’t think I’ll be heading home [to new Zealand] any time soon. For me, I now see Scotland as my home. I’ve set up my life here, I can see out my career here – rugby or not. I don’t know if you have been to New Zealand, but it is very like Scotland.”
So, no plans for a permanent return to her homeland, but a trip south for the World Cup next summer is definitely a long-term goal.
“I think I would be quite comfortable saying that is where our team want to get to, and where we were looking to push forward towards this year in terms of our overall performance, so we’ll just have to wait and see what we can do to get ourselves there,” she acknowledges.
This disease has taken so many lives already