THE Scotland Women’s team have been boosted by the return from injury of Jade Konkel as they prepare for a Six Nations Championship in which they have realistic hopes of recording a first victory since 2010, writes Stuart Bathgate.
Konkel, the country’s only full-time female professional, has only just returned to action after recovering from a dislocated shoulder. In her absence Scotland were only narrowly beaten by Spain in a two-leg play-off for this year’s Rugby World Cup, so with her back in the ranks they should have a good chance of winning at least one of their three home games.
All three will be at Broadwood Stadium, beginning a fortnight today, the eve of the Scotland-Ireland match in the men’s Six Nations. Wales and Italy will also visit the Cumbernauld ground, where the women’s internationals will be staged as double-headers with the men’s under-20 fixtures.
Konkel, the Hillhead-Jordanhill forward, is part of a 32-woman squad for the championship announced yesterday by head coach Shade Munro, with those who took part against the Spanish forming the bulk of the group. Murrayfield Wanderers’ stand-off Lisa Martin is again named as captain. The squad will meet up in London on Sunday for a three-day training camp that will culminate in a game against Aylesford Bulls.
“The Women’s Six Nations is a great platform to develop the squad and benchmark progress as we work towards closing the gap with world-class nations,” Munro said. “We’ve added more training camps and competitive games this season to better prepare both the new and experienced players for the task ahead. The structures Scottish Rugby has put in place to support players and release their full potential are also making a difference and we took huge positives from our two matches against Spain in autumn.
“We competed for the whole 80 minutes in both games and developed our defence and attack. The players took confidence from that because they can see the improvement.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here