Sport

UofG Athletes: Meet Melanie

By MelanieBlogger 18 Dec 2017

Hi, I’m Melanie and I’ve been playing rugby since I was at school!

Originally wanted to play football, that was my real passion, and my school offered football and school of rugby programme. Because I love sport, I trialled for both of them!

I was terrible at football (unfortunately) and was nowhere near as good as all the boys! But I did get into the School of Rugby and have never looked back since! I’ve been playing for 7 years now and have had so many opportunities so I’m really quite grateful that I was bad at football after all.

Rugby for me is an outlet. I have ADHD and also suffer from generalised anxiety disorder so playing rugby is a really important part of how I manage my mental health issues and helps me every single day!

When I first started playing rugby 7 years ago, I got bullied quite a bit for it because I was the only girl playing, but tt now makes me happy to see so many females involved in the sport and how badass we all are at it! There’s nothing better than the mud and aggression and better yet, enjoying it all as a big team.

Although women’s rugby has come a long way, I still think there’s room for improvement. It’s not equally broadcasted or funded but I think if the sport can keep growing for females, that will soon change.