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Women's XV

Feature: Carly keen on future in rugby after basketball and Gaelic football grounding

Feature: Carly keen on future in rugby after basketball and Gaelic football grounding

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We catch up with Women’s XV player Carly Lauder…

Carly Lauder joined the Women's XV at Myreside last year and is enjoying life at Myreside.

As she was growing up in Falkirk, Carly, now 24, gave every sport a go and ended up playing basketball.

“I was playing basketball for Falkirk Fury in my teens and really enjoyed it with my friends,” she explained.

“Then I moved across to dancing and everything seemed to clash so the basketball had to take a back seat.

“When I headed to Heriot-Watt for uni I thought about getting back into basketball, but there were loads of Irish students that I met and they all were keen for me to give Gaelic football a try.

“I had never really heard of it before or seen it much, but I gave it a go and it was really fun. The rules and techniques take time to get to know, there is running, kicking, every four steps you have to ‘keepy uppy’ the ball or bounce the ball on the ground and it is technically non-contact, but it can be quite feisty.

“Over the four years of studying mechanical engineering I played that, enjoyed it and had a laugh.”

Carly graduated from university in the summer of 2017 and was keen to continue playing sport alongside working.

She returned home to Falkirk and kept up her gym work before a move back to Edinburgh to live with her partner saw her determined to restart competitive sport.

“I have always loved watching rugby,go to a lot of the Scotland games and my boyfriend plays for Lasswade, so when I was at the Highland Show last year with [Women’s XV player] Anna Forsyth we were chatting and having a couple of drinks and she persuaded me to head to Watsonians for rugby training,” Carly said.

“So, I went down to pre-season training last July and I felt a bit daunted because the girls had just won the Sarah Beaney Cup and I was new to the sport, but everyone was so welcoming straight away.

“They all helped me to learn the basics and soon I was learning the second-row role.

“I have constantly been working on the basics since then and Molly Wright has really helped me with my passing while I am now used to the physicality, when Lucy Winter hit me at an early training session I certainly knew about it!

“During the league campaign in late 2019 I played a few games and then picked up an injury and was in New Zealand for a few weeks, but I was back to watch the play-off final against Hills and the team did brilliantly.

“Second-row was the position I played until the recent Howe Harlequins Cup game when I had a run out at prop. That was an interesting experience at 6 foot 1, but it was really good fun!

“I also scored my first try in that game so that was a nice feeling and like everyone else I am now just trying to keep fit and will be keen to go in 2020/21.”

Words by Gary Heatly

Images by Graham Gaw, more here

With no live sporting action ongoing currently, it doesn’t mean that WFC stories cannot be told. We will be running features on the website, but if there is anything you would like covered contact Gary Heatly (this can be done via the Media page on the website)