Carla Campbell is proud to have been asked to captain Wigtownshire this season and is looking forward to leading them in the Arnold Clark Women’s National League and the Sarah Beaney Cup in 2026/27.
Her time in charge of last year’s West One title winners got off to a great start last Sunday with a 39-28 bonus point league win away at Dundee Valkyries.
Now they are preparing to host West of Scotland at the London Road Playing Fields on Sunday and it should be a cracking game.
“We are looking forward to our first home game this weekend, being at home always helps with availability and momentum,” the 24-year-old scrum-half said.
“We have a few girls returning this weekend and also another couple of new girls who will be hoping to make their debuts for the team too. We will be trying to build from last week and hopefully we will manage to get another win on the board.
“We were really pleased to go up to Dundee and get the win especially with the squad stretched, five players making debuts for the team and three girls playing their first ever games of rugby. The grit and determination on show from every player was what ensured that we got the win in the end.
“Wigtownshire is great, the whole club gets behind the women’s teams and backs us with everything we do.
“It is such a friendly environment to be involved in and there’s always a lot of social events going on which helps the team morale. The group of girls we have in our team are amazing and, as I said, they really showed last weekend how much they’re willing to put in a fight for themselves and the team.
“As a team we’re just trying to just take each game as it comes this term, building on how we finished last season as well as developing a fairly new squad.
“There will be lots of big challenges this year, this league is likely to be so tight with many competitive games so we’re not expecting anything to come easy for us, but if the girls keep putting in the work at training then hopefully it’ll pay off on the pitch.
“The Sarah Beaney Cup will be a new challenge which the girls are looking forward to also.”
Campbell grew up on a farm in south-west Scotland near Whithorn and played a bit of rugby whilst in secondary school at Douglas Ewart High School and at Newton Stewart Rugby Club.
“I then stopped playing for a few years between school and when I was at uni and started again when I was about 20,” she stated.
“I joined Wigtownshire around that time and started playing senior rugby there.
“It was one of the only women’s team local to me so made sense for me to go there and I’ve been there for the past four seasons and really enjoy it.
“This is my first season as captain so I am trying to build into the role. It has been different, but I am proud and excited to be leading this group of girls out every game and their attitude makes it so much easier.
“I love a challenge so personally I’m looking forward to the whole season and especially some of the bigger cup games against the Premiership teams to really see what we are all about and the levels we need to try and push towards as a team.”
The round two National League fixtures are here.
Carla Campbell is pictured
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