Most housemates might spend a Friday night enjoying a drink together and forgetting about the working week, but for Sarah Bonar and Rachel Malcolm there is very much a job to do at Scotstoun when Scotland play Ireland in the Women’s Six Nations (7.35pm, on BBC ALBA).
The duo live together in Loughborough and, on Friday evening, will be teaming up in the back-row alongside Rachel McLachlan for Shade Munro’s side in what is a very important game.
Bonar returned from injury last week in the 28-7 defeat to Italy, bagging her first international try in the process.
As a result the second-row who has now moved to No.8 is determined to get a victory on the board in week two – and give herself an early birthday present in the process.
She turns 25 on Saturday and is looking forward to a second game on the bounce after an ankle issue.
“Our house was unfortunate with injuries pre-Christmas [Malcolm has recently returned from concussion], but we’ve been able to spur each other on and get each other back, doing our return to contact together and the like has been helpful, just having someone sharing it with you, going through the same thing is very useful,” Bonar said.
“Myself and Rachel are really good mates on and off the pitch with Loughborough and Scotland and we are housemates so, spending a lot of time together, it’s a good opportunity for us to do a bit of analysis together and work out some moves, so from that point of view it’s exciting to be in the back-row with her for this game.
“Last week it was a good feeling coming back and scoring a try. It was exciting, a roller-coaster of emotions scoring that try before the clock ran down in the first half it was really good, momentum-changing, and we were really positive going into the second half.
“Unfortunately we could not execute a lot of our moves and they got away from us.
“Last year [winning in Ireland] was an amazing day! It was touch-and-go for the all 80 minutes, it was a real 80 minutes performance and I expect we will need the same on Friday, probably an 85 minute performance if it goes down to the wire.
“If we can compose ourselves and play in the right areas then will be a brilliant game.”
Originally from Aberdeen, Bonar is now a geography teacher down south.
Her parents are very proud of her achievements with the national team, but could not make it to the Italy game.
Not to worry though because mum kindly sent Bonar a video of her dad celebrating her try.
“Mum managed to somehow film my dad’s celebration of my try and it was really funny – they were in the living room and he was jumping around!
“They’re super proud, growing up in Aberdeen there’s a lot of pride about trying to go on and play for Scotland, pull on the jersey and play for the thistle and I am loving this journey.”
Thanks to Mark Brown/Rugby People for the main photo
BBC ALBA is the Gaelic language television service and it will be broadcasting all of Scotland’s games at the 2019 Women’s Six Nations.
Launched in September 2008 as a collaboration between the BBC and MG ALBA, BBC ALBA was the first partnership television service to operate under a BBC licence.
BBC ALBA broadcasts every day from 5pm, delivering children’s output, news coverage and a whole range of diverse programming to its dedicated and appreciative audience.
You can find BBC ALBA on these platforms:
Sky 141 (Scotland), Sky 169 (rest of UK)
Freeview / You View 7 (Scotland only)
Virgin Media 161 (UK)
Freesat 109 (UK)
BT Vision 8 (Scotland only)
Smallworld 170 (Ayrshire and North West England)
And BBC iPlayer, both live and on catch up
Follow BBC ALBA on Facebook and Twitter for information on upcoming programmes and extra sport content: