The sport&me series of blogs look at Oakham School pupils’ relationship with sport. We ask how their sport has developed during their time at Oakham, how it fits into their busy lives and what they love about the sports they play.
Form 4 pupil Cammie is a keen and talented rugby player. She joined Oakham School at the start of the 2022-23 academic year.
Cammie’s Story
I came to Oakham School last September, joining Buchanans House in Form 4.
I started playing rugby when I was eight-years-old for a local team in Hong Kong, but I also went through the national team through U12s, U14s and U16s.
Now I’m here in England and I’m currently playing for the School, Leicestershire County, and I’ve just been accepted to play URS (Ultimate Rugby Sevens).
Love For Rugby
My dad played rugby so I have watched it since I was born, but it was when I moved to Hong Kong where I started playing. Both my brother and sister play rugby, so every Sunday we would all go to training together.
I think the rugby community is one of the best sporting communities. Everyone is just there to play, everyone is so nice and everyone just gets it.
If you get involved in rugby you have got a community for life.
Rugby has massively helped me with other sports as well; my hand-eye coordination has improved, which has really helped me when playing netball.
Rugby at Oakham
When playing 15s I mostly play in the back row, but sometimes I’ll play in the second row too.
I joined the U18 team in the second term – only playing sevens – playing with all the Form 7s, so I was the youngest.
It was really nice to play with the older years because they were all so nice to me. I got to know them all better, especially going down to the Rosslyn Park Sevens.
They understood that I knew what I was doing, but they always asked me questions and got me involved.
Coaching at Oakham
The girls’ U18 coach for rugby is Dr Simpson and he is one of the best. He is so nice.
He takes things slow for people who are just starting out and, for me, he will give me more to do and make me work even harder.
He’ll often pull me aside and tells me specifically what they want to see from me during games and give me some closer one-to-one coaching.
He coaches with Ms Cafolla, who’s a tutor in Buchanans. She plays rugby too, so it’s nice that we can speak about it outside of the training.
Women’s Rugby
People don’t understand the quality and the size of women’s rugby and it’s just growing so fast. When England and France women played each other at Twickenham I think there were 60,000 fans, which just shows how much it has grown even in comparison to two years ago.
Balancing Sport and Academics
We have specific training on Tuesday and Thursdays and then games on Saturdays. For my club outside of school I’ll go home on Wednesdays to go to training and then we have games on Sundays. So it all fits in around my lessons and school work, even though I have quite a lot on each week.
Advice for Girls Looking to Play Rugby
I would recommend girls getting into rugby, it’s not as scary as it looks. You always get better as you go along.
