We chat to Briar McNamara…

The Women’s XV were the last team to win the Tennent’s Premiership title way back in late 2019, but they will have another chance to do it on January 29.

On Saturday, they returned to action with a bang, playing some cracking rugby to defeat Stirling County 39-0 in the Premiership play-off semi-final.

It means they have set-up a repeat of the 2019/20 final against old rivals Hillhead/Jordanhill and key to the triumph over County was the way the backs interlinked.

There are a lot of players in the squad playing their first season for Freddie Main’s charges and one of those is centre Briar McNamara from New Zealand.

So, how did Briar end up in Edinburgh and at Myreside?

“I moved over London in 2018 and then moved up to Scotland just towards the end of 2019 before the pandemic came,” she explains.

“Early in 2020 I managed to get back to New Zealand to see family before Covid took hold of the world, so that was good.

“Rugby-wise in Scotland I first began training at Liberton, but then I suffered a bit of a freak ACL injury. It happened at training during the times when no contact was allowed, so it was a bit strange, but it put me out for a while.

“While I was recovering from that injury, I was coaching at Liberton and, with the injury beginning to heal, I was keen to get back to playing at a higher standard. So, I headed down to Watsonians to train just before this current 2021/22 season started.

“In October I played my first competitive match after the injury and it was the first game I had played in at all since I had been down in London when I was playing county level in Kent in early 2019.

“The Watsonians girls were very welcoming to me from day one and made it easy for me, so as soon as the injury was better I just wanted to get out there playing again.”

Briar, who was brought up on the North Shore in Auckland in her homeland, played football as a youngster.

She then picked up rugby when she was around 18 or 19, playing sevens firstly when she was at college and then progressing to play sevens and XVs for a club.

Fast forward to the current day and the Women’s XV have been on a great run of late.

They had some great results in the second half of the regular season before Christmas and then built on those wins against County at the weekend, a quick start putting them in control in front of a healthy crowd.

“The team has started to click pretty well,” Briar, 25, said.

“We have been working hard in training and everyone plays for each other which is really great.

“It is a pleasure to be a part of this team and all of the older and newer players all enjoy being part of this group.”

Words by Gary Heatly

Thanks to Rugby People for the image of Briar