Liz Musgrove will feel at home for Scotland at Hong Kong Sevens

Liz Musgrove only took up rugby in 2016, but now the winger is living in Hong Kong and ready to play for Scotland on “home” turf over the next few days as they look to earn a place on the World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series for 2019-20.
Scotland's 
Liz Musgrove. Picture: SNSScotland's 
Liz Musgrove. Picture: SNS
Scotland's Liz Musgrove. Picture: SNS

The Scots, led by head coach Scott Forrest and skipper Helen Nelson, are taking part in the qualifying tournament for the World Series tomorrow and Friday in Hong Kong.

With just the winners of the competition guaranteed a place on the World Series next term it will be a big scrap, but Scotland have come far in the abbreviated game over the last couple of years under former head coach Scott Wight and now Forrest.

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Scotland are in Pool X with Japan, Belgium and Mexico and are looking to qualify for the quarter-finals in Hong Kong Stadium on Friday.

To have a chance of winning the event, Scotland’s flyers such as Musgrove, Abi Evans, Rhona Lloyd and Hannah Smith will need to be on top form and the former should certainly be acclimatised.

Growing up in North Berwick, Musgrove, now 22, never sat still as a child and when she saw a judo demonstration at her primary school she instantly knew that was for her. She pursued that and athletics, but always had rugby in the back of her mind.

“Fast forward to 2016 and I thought I would give something new a try when my third year of university started in Edinburgh again in September – and a week later I was stepping out at BT Murrayfield for the Varsity match,” she explained.

From there Musgrove broke into the Scotland XV-a-side and sevens teams and, on graduating from university last summer, moved to Hong Kong where she works for Little Legends Sports and coaches the under-19 girls’ team at Hong Kong FC.

“As a Scotland group we have come a long way in the last couple of years and we have all bought into what we are trying to do, so these are exciting times,” Musgrove added.

The Scots open their campaign against Belgium tomorrow at 3am BST.