Nikki Callan (26), from Garvock, admitted her history as a hockey player meant she hadn’t been too keen on touch rugby when she first started. Now she’s following in the footsteps of her best friend, Dunfermline cycling star Charline Joiner, by gearing up to go Down Under and represent her country on the world stage.

Nikki Callan (26), from Garvock, admitted her history as a hockey player meant she hadn’t been too keen on touch rugby when she first started. Now she’s following in the footsteps of her best friend, Dunfermline cycling star Charline Joiner, by gearing up to go Down Under and represent her country on the world stage.

“I’ve never had any experience with international sport before,” she said. “I never thought I’d get the chance so I’m definitely proud.

“I was waiting about a week to find out if I’d made it into the squad and it was so nerve-wracking! But then I got the phone call with the good news. It’s absolutely crazy. Charline is my best friend and she’s heavily involved in Scottish sport so she’s been an inspiration to me, it’s great.

“We fly out to Brisbane on 19th April and we’ll have about a week and a half of training and some friendlies with the local teams. The tournament is in Coffs Harbour over five days then afterwards I’ll have a week and a half to see Australia, so that’s something to look forward to.” Former Dunfermline High School pupil Nikki has had a whirlwind journey into the sport, only playing competitively for around a year before being brought into the Scotland fold.

“I’ve played hockey since I was 14 but got into touch rugby socially in 2013,” she explained. “It wasn’t really competitive at that stage and when I started I didn’t even enjoy it that much! Being a hockey player I was used to freely running around and into spaces, not being restricted to staying onside and only passing backwards. But I stuck with it!” Nikki was asked to go to a training camp in Edinburgh but at the time she still had hockey commitments so it wasn’t until the start of 2014 that she went along to her first proper session.

“I enjoyed it but quickly realised that the standard was much higher and the rules and tactics a lot more complicated than what I was used to at the social league!” she said. “But I loved the challenge to learn and excel at something new.” After gaining experience in the Edinburgh league, Nikki took part in regional tournaments to try out for the Scotland squad, knowing that the prize would be taking part in the Touch Rugby World Cup in Australia this year. She represented the East of Scotland in a national tournament and was picked for the initial Scotland training squad in a group of 50, which got whittled down to 23 before the final training camp.

“I trained so hard independently in preparation for that camp,” she said. “I didn’t want to fall at the final hurdle.

“We had to wait an agonising eight days before we were told if we were in the final 16. When I eventually got a call from the coach, it was good news – I had made the final squad! All of my hard work and dedication had paid off. I was over the moon!” Now Nikki is getting ready to head off to Australia but the team is still trying to raise money to get to the tournament. Because touch rugby doesn’t qualify for Sportscotland grants, each player will have to fork out around £2500 for training, tournament fees, kit, flights and accommodation. The team has organised a fund-raising prize draw to try to make sure everyone makes it and Nikki is determined to be there. As there is no team sponsorship or funding I’ll be saving up my pennies until then as well,” she said.

“But it’ll all be worth it for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

“Touch rugby is relatively small and new here but in Australia and New Zealand it’s much more popular and there’s so much coverage over there.” If you want to help the squad raise funds for Australia, you can enter the prize draw at www.pledgesports.org/projects/touch-rugby-world-cup-2015