'The GB 7s programme disbanding really hit me hard': Campbell on recent Scotland call up

A new era for Scotland Women is beginning and returning winger Shona Campbell feels like a “new chapter” is getting underway for her with the national team and she “cannot wait”.

The 38-strong Scotland training squad met at Oriam on the outskirts of Edinburgh on Tuesday to start ramping up their preparations for the upcoming Women’s Six Nations with the round one match against Wales being played on Saturday 11th April at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.

The players met new head coach Sione Fukofuka and senior assistant coach Ioan Cunningham in January at an initial camp and with new forwards coach Dave Butcher now in the country the hard work starts now.

Australian Fukofuka and co. have been watching matches from the PWR, Celtic Challenge and Elite 1 in France lately to get to know their new charges and they will have been impressed by what they have seen from 24-year-old Campbell who has scored eight league tries for Sale Sharks this term.

Fixture

Womens Six Nations

Wales Women

08:40

11 Apr 26

Scotland Women

All Stats and Data

Campbell is set to be battling it out with Sale team mate Rhona Lloyd, Francesca McGhie (Trailfinders Women), Coreen Grant (Harlequins) and Hannah Walker (Edinburgh Rugby/University of Edinburgh) for wing spots during the tournament with Chloe Rollie (Toulon Provence Méditerranée) and Lucia Scott (Loughborough Lightning) the full-backs in the group.

In November 2021, Campbell, then 20, made her Scotland debut off the bench in a win against Japan in Edinburgh.

Her second cap then came in early 2022 in Dubai, also off the bench, when the Scots defeated Colombia 59-3 to qualify for their first Rugby World Cup in 12 years.

She then earned seven more caps for Scotland during the Women’s Six Nations of 2022 and the World Cup in New Zealand later that year.

After the World Cup in New Zealand she signed a GB Sevens contract as she set her sights on making it to the Paris Olympics in 2024.

While with the sevens set-up she did have some involvement with Scotland at 15s level when available, but her last matchday 23 selection was as an unused sub two years ago in Wales.

As a result, the nine-capper now says she is champing at the bit to potentially pull on the dark blue strip again between now and the end of the Six Nations Championship on Sunday 17th May.

“I didn’t put any pressure on myself to necessarily try to get back into the Scotland squad when I returned to focus on 15s last summer, but I think it was always something that I wanted to achieve and it was always a goal of mine so I am super grateful to be included again,” Campbell, who had two long-term collarbone injuries while part of the GB Sevens programme, explained.

“Missing out on the Olympics two years ago and then the full-time GB Sevens programme disbanding last year really hit me hard, but through those lows I learnt a lot about myself as a person and as a player and I was able to press the reset button and think about what I really wanted from rugby going forward.

“I reprioritised what’s important to me and why I do it and now I definitely try to celebrate all the small wins when they come and really appreciate how far I’ve come – and then also keep in the back of my mind how far hopefully I can still go.

“I feel like a new chapter began for me when I joined Sale last summer and now another new chapter is starting with Scotland and I cannot wait for the next few weeks.

“I definitely have a hugely different perspective on everything than I did when I was heavily involved with Scotland for a couple of years around that 2022 World Cup time. I was really young then and maybe didn’t think about things too much, things just kept happening to me quickly and I was just going along with everything.

 

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“In recent times I have been able to take a step back from things and focus on myself and what I can bring to any environment that I am in. And I think that makes going back into the Scotland set up super exciting, I feel like a very different athlete and a very different player.”

You feel moving to Sale Sharks for the 2025/26 season, a club who are currently battling it out for a top four play-off spot in the league, was the right move at the right time for a player who is a deep thinker on the game.

She is currently completing a Masters remotely via Bangor University in performance psychology and her blogs and vlogs on social media have helped a lot of other athletes navigate tricky situations during the highs and the lows of life in that space.

After selecting Campbell in his Six Nations squad, Fukofuka said that he felt her move to a team that likes to get width on the ball in the shape of the Sharks was a “masterstroke”.

Campbell herself added: “Obviously, moving back into a top level 15s environment after a few years in sevens took some getting used to, but I think I’ve really landed on my feet at Sale.

“Getting ready for sevens tournaments and such like is different than playing week in, week out in XVs and you have to get your body ready for that again.

“I feel like I began building into that routine quite well at the start of the season and have just taken things from there while, as a team, we have also built into the season as it has gone along. We have all just bought into the way that we want to play and we can see it now starting to pay off.

Fixture

PWR

Saracens Women

54 - 0

Full-time

Sale Sharks Women

All Stats and Data

“Although the weekend defeat at Saracens was a disappointment for us all we know that we are going in the right direction.

“I feel that having played sevens at a high level my communication out on the pitch has really improved as has my defence and I am always just working hard to be the best player I can be while not putting as much pressure on myself as I did when I was younger.

“When I am playing with a clear mind and a smile on my face I play my best rugby.”