In her youth Rianna Darroch used to compete for Highland Swim Team, but in recent months she was given a chance to make a splash with Glasgow Warriors in rugby’s Celtic Challenge competition.
Between mid-December and last weekend Glasgow and Edinburgh Rugby squads were involved in the high level event with Irish and Welsh teams.
There were some tough results for Glasgow, but they did get a first win ever at this level at home to Edinburgh and made good strides under head coach Lindsey Smith.
“It was a great experience being part of the Warriors’ campaign,” Darroch, the 19-year-old who is from Aviemore and went to Kingussie High School, explained.
“As a supported Scottish Rugby academy player I had been able to do some extra training on top of my club training before the Celtic Challenge, but then to get the call into the Glasgow squad once the event started was really exciting for me.
“As a scrum-half who is still learning the position it was really helpful to be able to train alongside and learn from someone like Scotland cap Mairi McDonald. I took a lot from that in terms of position and game management as well as how to communicate better on the pitch and whenever I was training or when I got some minutes in games I just tried to do my best.
“As a young player there is so much that I can take away from the whole experience and it has given me the desire to keep working hard at my rugby while it has given me confidence that I can play at that level and I’m excited for the future and other opportunities that may come my way going forward.”
Darroch took up rugby aged 15 after sessions were started at her school.
“I had been used to an individual sport in swimming which I really enjoyed and put a lot of time into, but when rugby came along I was quite taken by the teamwork aspect of things and learning new skills,” she recounted.
“As a result, I headed along to the Highland club in Inverness to play after being part of Highland Swim Team before that and rugby started to become my main sport.
“When I started in the youth teams at Highland I was a stand-off and by the time I was in the ujnder-18s I was also involved in the Caledonia North under-18s regional set up.
“That helped to push me into the Scotland under-18 set up too. That was a big step up, but training and playing alongside girls that I had played against before was beneficial.
“We went down to the Six Nations Festival held at Wellington College in England and playing games at that level in a short space of time really helped me learn quickly while I was also lucky enough to play sevens for Scotland under-18 including a trip to Prague for a Rugby Europe event.”
After a spell working post-school, a move to Glasgow then came and Darroch is currently studying for an HND in sports coaching at Glasgow Clyde College.
Since her move to the city she has been linked up with the Hillhead Jordanhill club who play in the Arnold Clark Premiership.
“I really enjoy being part of the club,” Darroch said.
“The team play a really exciting brand of rugby and a fast style and that suits me. At the club I started out mainly playing 12, but was then moved to scrum-half and that is where my minutes came for Glasgow too.
“I have a newfound appreciation for the work that nines do now as they are all over the place, but I enjoy being involved a lot and trying to help whichever team I am playing for control games if I can.”
Rianna Darroch is pictured – thanks to Glasgow Warriors for the images
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