A busy summer of sevens, 10s and social rugby outings has left the Inverness Craig Dunain women’s squad buzzing ahead of the upcoming season as they look to bounce back from relegation.
ICD will begin their 2026/27 campaign at home against Garioch’s second team on September 5 in Arnold Clark North Two and they will also be competing in the National Plate competition from October onwards.
And the players are closely-knit and all looking forward to a run of games after some good run outs in recent times.
Kayleigh Rose, the team captain, explained: “We have had quite the summer of fun this year and we have had a team at every sevens and 10s event that someone has suggested that we should be at.
“We kicked things off at West of Scotland, headed up to Caithness, three of our players turned out at Irvine, we made a proper squad tour down south for the Heart of Wales event and finally we returned to Earlston to defend and retain our title recently.
“These events have been great for team fitness and it meant that when the hill sprints started at pre-season training it wasn’t such a shock to the system!
“Unfortunately, the busy summer schedule has meant that we are starting the season off with a couple of injuries, but those players will be back and the team bonding has been fantastic – indeed at many of these events we’ve camped in a big tent so we have spent plenty time with each other.
“We are just back from Orkney’s 60th anniversary celebration where some of us were part of the invitational North team that played the home side the Dragons.
“And we also have a mixed team friendly as part of the the Ross Sutherland memorial match weekend coming up and a number of our players will make up the majority of Ross Sutherland/Lossiemouth team to play against a Caithness/Lochaber team.”
After two wins from eight in North One last term, Inverness Craig Dunain were relegated while, in the National Shield, they won one pool match and have a lot of players returning this term who are ready to make their mark.
“We’ve got a great core group of players leading the way heading into the new season who are really putting in the effort at training,” Rose said.
“We are still on the look out for a new head coach, but, in the meantime, we have club president and player Hannah Chisholm leading the coaching with support from myself and our vice-captain Jules Partridge and we are all helping each other out.
“Honestly, this season I just want everyone to keep having fun as that has certainly been challenging on occasion over the past couple of seasons, but we are starting to get there now.
“My main goal coming into the captaincy role was to remind everyone that rugby is a hobby and if we aren’t having fun on the pitch then we aren’t doing it right. We are looking to take the opportunity that dropping down a league allows us to get some of our newer players up to speed with the game and develop ourselves back up to the standards we are used to as a unit on a consistent basis.
“ICD is honestly the best club to be a part of, we have so much heart and determination. Everyone is welcome and included and we all get along so well.
“The players from the men’s and women’s teams make up most of the committee so the decisions being made by the club are being made by the people it directly impacts.
“We are on the cusp of finally getting our own home ground, but right now you’ll find us at Culloden Academy most weekends as games kick in and every Tuesday and Thursday down at Merkinch Nature Reserve for training.”
Inverness Craig Dunain are pictured – thanks to Robbie Nisbet
It is shaping up to be an exciting 2026/27 season for women’s rugby in Scotland and GH Media will be covering it in detail – if any companies are keen to support this content please send an email to gary@gh-media.co.uk