Celtic Challenge: Aicha Sutcliffe loving life with Glasgow and looking forward to Scotstoun outings

Gary Heatly

Aicha Sutcliffe had an excellent women’s Arnold Clark Premiership campaign with eventual runners-up Stirling County and she has taken that form into the Celtic Challenge arena with Glasgow Warriors.

The young hooker was part of the Glasgow squad in 2023/24, but only had a few minutes on the pitch and this time around she is a key part of things.

Her and fellow youngster Megan Hyland are both athletic, mobile hookers who get around the park well and can also do their job at set piece time and their emergence is exciting for Scottish rugby.

What is also exciting is that Glasgow, after three matches on the road to start their campaign, are set to be at home at Scotstoun on Saturday when they take on Irish side Wolfhounds at 11.30am.

“It is going to be really exciting to play at home,” Sutcliffe, 20, stated after they saw the Clovers game at the weekend just gone postponed.

“Last year we saw the fans come out in their numbers for games at Scotstoun and it’ll be great to see them this weekend.

“As a squad we feel that we are building nicely into this game. We started the opening game against Edinburgh Rugby well before they got away with us, the Wolfhounds game was tough, but then we showed how dangerous we can be against Gwalia in Wales.

“Although we lost the game in the end, we scored some good tries and we have taken lessons from that and are heading into this game as a close-knit unit that is exciting to be playing in this competition.”

Sutcliffe’s rugby journey began in the Minis at local club Huntly before she took a break from the game for a few years.

“I was then at The Gordon Schools at the start of secondary school and my dad was coaching girls rugby there so I got involved again,” she explained.

“It was fun playing with my friends and although I was playing netball as well which made things pretty busy at times I took rugby on with Highland.

“It was a really fun club to join and it brought a bit of structure to things in terms of playing as a team and in different positions.

“While I was there we made it to Murrayfield for an under-15 and that was a really good day.”

With her rugby and netball flourishing, Sutcliffe then moved away from the north east to Perthshire to go to Strathallan School for her last two years at school after being offered a sports scholarship.

While team-wise Sutcliffe played more netball there, the excellent facilities on campus meant that she could work hard in the gym to prepare her for stepping up rugby levels while the school has a fine tradition of producing athletes for the latter sport.

“While I was at Strathallan I joined Stirling County to play under-18 rugby and it was a great decision for me,” Sutcliffe, who now studies economics and business management at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and is in third year, said.

“The youth set-up at the club was and still is excellent and while I was playing in the under-18s we also managed to get to a final at Murrayfield.

“After school it was an easy decision to make to stay with County for senior rugby and I absolutely love it there.

“The environment at the club has helped me push on with my game while we have won two Premiership titles in the last three years and this season in the league I felt I started to carry a bit more ball around the pitch and I really enjoyed that.”

The Scotland age-grade cap concluded: “Now I am just really enjoying getting a run of games with Glasgow and the fact that the Celtic Challenge has expanded and we know that this weekend is the first of five home games coming up is definitely something to look forward to.”

As it stands, Glasgow are fifth in the Celtic Challenge standings with Edinburgh fourth and the Wolfhounds leading,

Be there to cheer on Glasgow Warriors in their first home match of the 2024/25 Celtic Challenge this Saturday – tickets are available at glasgowwarriors.org

Thanks to Glasgow Warriors for the image of Aicha Sutcliffe

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