Women’s season kicks off in style

This weekend saw a takeover of BT Murrayfield at all levels in the women’s game. Kicking off on Saturday was the opening Scotland Women camp of the season, with Shade Munro at the coaching helm for the first time. The two-day camp was an opportunity to benchmark conditioning and skills after the season break, with a mix of experienced and new faces.Stand-off and BT Sport Scottish Rugby Academy player Lisa Martin said: ” It’s been really good to have all the players back, see where everyone is, meet the new coaching staff and to hear Shade’s ideas.”The players have kept themselves in good shape over the off season, too. Quite a few of the women are in the BT Sport Academies and you can see the benefit of the help they’ve had there with their skills and fitness. “The Academies have been really flexible with us as most of us have full-time jobs. The eight of us with the Academy in Edinburgh have evening sessions at our base at Napier University, for example. The facilities are great and the coaching has been really individualised.”It’s been fantastic – you can see the differences from last season so it can only get better going into this season.”While Martin is definitely in the experienced group, this initial camp saw players joining from Scotland Women 7s – who lifted the Bowl at the Grand Prix event in Russia – and Scotland Women under-20, who were unbeaten last season.Martin said: “Everyone’s fitting in well. It’s impressive to see how the younger players have developed and taken to senior rugby straight away.”Meanwhile day two of the senior camp saw a women’s club forum taking place within BT Murrayfield and girls from across the country gathering on the stadium’s 3G pitch for a regional tournament.Under-15 and under-18 girls from four regions – Glasgow South, Glasgow North & Central, Caledonia and East – who have been training in their groups, came together to play against each other at Sunday’s tournament which involved around 100 girls, aged between 12 and 18.Scottish Rugby’s Women’s and Girls’ co-ordinator, Sarah Quick – who was also involved on the neighbouring pitch as part of the Scotland Women squad – said: “After this, the girls go back out to their clubs and schools and any girls that are of age for the under-20 squad will be identified after we review the footage from the under-18 games.” [photo below]