It might already be Thursday, but the smile has not left Niamh Donegan’s face since Sunday after the Strathmore girls rugby player was a mascot at the Scotland women’s match with Italy.
Niamh, 12, plays rugby for Strathmore under-14s and also plays at Forfar Academy where she is an S1 pupil.
Like all youngsters, she has tried various sports over the years, but rugby is the one that has really captured her imagination because she enjoys being part of a close-knit team in a sport that has a lot of passion and where everyone supports each other.
You can imagine her excitement then when she was selected to be a mascot at Scotland’s round three Guinness Women’s Six Nations match versus the Italians at Hive Stadium in Edinburgh last weekend.
“On Sunday there were seven mascots from different clubs and Niamh was the oldest and was lucky enough to run onto the pitch with the Scotland captain Rachel Malcolm,” mum Ronnie said.
“She then knelt in front of Rachel and the rest of the squad for the national anthems before running off the pitch and joining myself and her dad Brian in great seats in the main stand to watch the match.
“The whole family are avid rugby supporters so we were very proud of Niamh and she had a great day.”
The Strathmore club said: “We were incredibly proud to see Niamh from our under-14 girls team selected to run out alongside the Scotland captain on Sunday.
“What an experience it was for one of our rising stars and a proud moment for the whole club.
“Thank you to Scottish Rugby for recognising our growing girls’ section and well done to Niamh for representing Strathie with pride.”
The Guinness Women’s Six Nations runs from March 22 to April 26 and, next up at home, Scotland are at Hive Stadium in round five versus Ireland on the final day – get tickets here.
Niamh Donegan is pictured on her big day at the Hive
GH Media will be covering Scotland women’s journey right through to Rugby World Cup 2025, bringing insight from within the camp throughout and featuring other parts of the game in this country too – thanks to those already supporting the content, if you or your company would like to get involved please email gary@gh-media.co.uk