I grew up watching my brother play rugby … now he admits I’m better than him

JADE KONKEL turned the game she loved a girl in to a job by becoming Scotland's first woman pro.

When Jade Konkel arrives for her shift at a care home, the oldies enjoy a joke at her expense.

She is Scotland’s first female ­professional rugby player. They are OAPs. But she trains so hard that she can be the one who can’t get out of her chair.

“The residents say they’re the ones who have to help me. Some days I’m struggling to get up off the ground.”

Aching quads and burning hamstrings are all in a day’s work for Jade, a Scotland internationalist. She has been playing rugby since she was big enough to carry a ball. Going pro was her life’s ambition, one she achieved at age 22.

It would surprise no one if baby Jade had a cuddly oval ball in her cot instead of a teddy. Her mum and dad both played for ­Inverness Craig Dunain.

The ladies team disbanded when Jade was in her pram, but Saturdays were spent watching dad on the pitch.

“I was that annoying little toddler who tried to get in about all the men and be the life of the party,” she recalled.

Jade also trailed along behind her rugby-daft big brother, Paul, attempting to gate-crash his best tackles and join in the scrum.

Aged five, her favourite outfit was a Scotland shirt. She was soon the only girl in the Highland Minis. “I was known for my tackles back then, even among the guys. But I stopped playing when I was nine. The boys were moving up. There were no teams for girls.”

At secondary school Jade took up basketball. “I was in the Highland Bears until I was 17. I loved it but rugby is my passion. I love the physicality of the game, I love that it’s a contact sport, there’s a position for everybody.”

She went to Edinburgh to try out for a national development squad. They put her straight into the ­Scotland under-20s.

Glasgow team Hillhead-Jordanhill also approached her to join. For a few long months she got up in the dark every Sunday, drove to Glasgow from her home in the Black Isle, played her club match then headed back up north.

“These were lonely journeys, singing my heart out to the cheesiest songs ever. I started at 5am to get there on time.”

Studying social work at Caledonian University cut down her travel time. Jade moved to Glasgow and somehow juggled care home shifts, hardcore training and writing essays. Hillhead-Jordanhill took up a chunk of weekends. A friend signed her up to coach the new Caledonian women’s rugby club. Jade crammed it in.

Last summer, after three hectic years, she decided to put her degree on hold and devote her attentions to the game. Two sessions a week at the care home aside, each minute was devoted to rugby.

By this time, Jade was part of the BT Scottish Rugby Academy, training with the male and female players who make up the national squad.

Hillhead-Jordanhill made her captain. She had a great season, was capped for Scotland and saw a huge improvement in the team during the Six Nations .

Last month, she was lifting weights in the gym as part of her pre-season training when she was summoned to see the manager. Heading to the office, still in her sweaty shorts, the skills coach and physio waiting there too.

“I thought, this is all very intense,” she recalled. “My first question was, ‘Am I in trouble?’”

The manager then asked her if she wanted to turn professional, with a 25-hour contract, more training and time off for rest and recovery.

Jade had not expected it but of course she said yes. She recalled: “It’s a moment I’m not going to forget. I was quite emotional.”

She phoned her mum, then Paul. Jade said: “Paul finally admitted that I’m a better rugby player than he is. Just. We are very similar and grew up being very competitive. That’s why there was a lot of fighting when we were younger. Now he’s my biggest fan.”

Even her big sister Sammy, who missed out on the oval ball gene, is impressed by Jade’s achievements.

Jade said: “She has started coming to more matches. She brags to her friends that she’s got an international sister.”

Sammy is also on hand to help on the rare occasions when her wee sister needs a posh frock. Shopping is not Jade’s thing. She admitted: “My wardrobe is more than three-quarters Scotland kit.”

Naturally big-hipped rugby players who do weight-bearing lower body ­exercises do not find it easy to buy cool clothes. “You can’t be a pear, squat and have a pair of jeans that fit.”

Retail therapy is not the only thing Jade has given up for rugby. Despite being surrounded by fit young men, there is no room for romance in her training schedule. Pizza nights, with leftovers to see off the hangover, are out. Chicken breasts and early nights are in.

Her favourite food is porridge. She eats a three-egg omelette for breakfast, with asparagus, broccoli or even brussels sprouts inside. When she does have a rest day, it is not spent watching Game of Thrones . Jade prefers to relax by analysing past matches.

“Feet up, wee cup of tea, wee rugby game on the laptop, notepad and pen, that’s me good to go.”

There is not much left on Jade’s to-do list? She has played rugby with her mum, in the new Craig Dunain ladies team. When Emma made a break from halfway, Jade was overwhelmed. “I just stood there and shouted, ‘Come on Mum! Go, Mum! Keep going,’ she said.

“It was an amazing experience, wearing the Inverness Craig Dunain jersey for the first time, playing the sport I love, the sport I play for my country, with my mum, with my dad and my brother in the crowd watching.”

Jade’s goal is to qualify for the World Cup in Ireland next year. She also plans to make the most of her pro status – and show others they can do it too.

“I’ve been given a wonderful ­opportunity to show what Scottish rugby can achieve in the women’s game.

“Hopefully I can be a role model to girls, they can see rugby’s a growing sport, that there is a future for women in rugby as well.”