Sheila Begbie

Last updated

Sheila Begbie MBE (born 1957) is a Scottish former footballer and sports administrator who was Director of Domestic Rugby at the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) until 2021. She played as a central defender for Edinburgh Dynamos and the Scotland women's national team, making 25 international appearances after debuting for Scotland aged 15. She later entered football administration, spending sixteen years as head of Girls' and Women's Football at the Scottish Football Association (SFA) before switching to rugby union with the SRU in 2014.

Contents

Early life and football career

Sheila Begbie grew up in the Drylaw area of Edinburgh and attended Craigroyston High School in the early 1970s. She began playing football and other sports in the street, in an era when this was considered unusual for a girl. At the age of 13, she heard about a local women's football team, Edinburgh Dynamos – one of only eight such teams in Scotland at the time – and began to play in organised football. [1]

Aged 15, she made her debut for the Scotland national team in 1973, going on to make 25 appearances as a defender. Her first appearance was in an 8–0 defeat against England in Nuneaton, but she captained Scotland in their first ever win against England, 2–1 in Dundee in 1977. She scored for Scotland and also conceded an own goal in a 3–1 defeat to Italy at the San Siro in September 1974. [2]

Although she was later offered opportunities to play semi-professionally in Italy and the United States, Begbie decided to stay in Scotland and concentrate on her career as a physical education teacher. [1] In 1995, she became one of the first Scottish women to obtain an A Licence for coaching. [3]

Administrative career

Begbie was Girls' and Women's Football Co-ordinator with the TeamSport Scotland initiative of Sportscotland prior to becoming Head of Girls' and Women's Football at the Scottish Football Association (SFA) in 1998. She was involved in the establishment of the SFA Women's National Performance Centre at the University of Stirling. She also worked with UEFA in a number of roles, including as head of their Women's Committee and as a Match Delegate. [4]

Begbie left the SFA in 2014, switching sports to take up a new appointment with the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) as Head of Women's Rugby. [5] [6] In 2017 she took up a new role at the SRU, becoming Director of Domestic Rugby, with a remit to develop the sport at grassroots level. [7] She will retire from the SRU in the summer of 2021. [2]

Honours

Begbie was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2001 New Year Honours list, for her services to women's football. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scottish Football Association</span> Governing body of football in Scotland

The Scottish Football Association is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility for the control and development of football in Scotland. Members of the SFA include clubs in Scotland, affiliated national associations as well as local associations. It was formed in 1873, making it the second oldest national football association in the world. It is not to be confused with the Scottish Football Union, which is the name that the SRU was known by until the 1920s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scotland national rugby union team</span> National rugby union squad

The Scotland national rugby union team represents Scotland in men's international rugby union and is administered by the Scottish Rugby Union. The team takes part in the annual Six Nations Championship and participates in the Rugby World Cup, which takes place every four years.

Scottish Rugby Union Governing body of rugby union in Scotland

The Scottish Rugby Union is the governing body of rugby union in Scotland. Styled as Scottish Rugby, it is the second oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873. The SRU oversees the national league system, known as the Scottish League Championship, and the Scottish National teams. The SRU is headed by the President and Chairman, with Mark Dodson acting as the Chief Executive Officer. Dee Bradbury became the first female president of a Tier 1 rugby nation upon her appointment on 4 August 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edinburgh Rugby</span> Scottish rugby union club, based in Edinburgh

Edinburgh Rugby is one of the two professional rugby union teams from Scotland. The club competes in the United Rugby Championship, along with the Glasgow Warriors, its oldest rival. Edinburgh plays most of its home games at Edinburgh Rugby Stadium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Paterson</span> Scotland international rugby union player

Christopher Douglas Paterson, MBE is an ambassador and specialist coach for the Scotland and Edinburgh rugby union teams. He is a former professional rugby union player who played for Scotland and, for the most part of his career, Edinburgh. Paterson is Scotland's record points scorer with 809 points and second most-capped player with 109 caps. He was capable of playing in a range of positions, including fullback, wing and fly-half.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murrayfield Stadium</span> Rugby stadium in Edinburgh, Scotland

Murrayfield Stadium is a Rugby stadium located in the Murrayfield area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It has a seating capacity of 67,144 making it the largest stadium in Scotland and the fifth largest in the United Kingdom.

Andrew Robertson Irvine is a former president of the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU), and a former Scottish international rugby player. He earned fifty one Scotland caps, captaining the team on fifteen occasions, and scored 250 points for Scotland. He went on three British Lions tours.

Ayr Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club. Its top men's side currently plays as Ayrshire Bulls in the Super 6 competition; and its women's side play in the Scottish Womens National One. The club also runs a "Club XV" which competes in the Tennent's National League 1, a 2nd XV "Ayr-Millbrae", which plays in the SRU West Reserve League Division 1, and various age group teams, from age 4, up to age 18.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rugby union in Scotland</span> Popular team sport

Rugby union in Scotland is a popular team sport. Scotland's national side today competes in the annual Six Nations Championship and the Rugby World Cup. The first ever international rugby match was played on 27 March 1871, at Raeburn Place in Edinburgh, when Scotland defeated England in front of 4,000 people. Professional clubs compete in the United Rugby Championship, European Rugby Champions Cup and European Rugby Challenge Cup, while the Scottish League Championship exists for over 200 amateur and semi-professional clubs, as does a knock-out competition, the Scottish Cup. The governing body, the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU), is one of the ten first-tier member nations of World Rugby.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julie Fleeting</span> Scottish footballer

Julie Fleeting MBE, whose married name is Julie Stewart, is a Scottish former footballer who played as a forward. She spent nine years at English club Arsenal and was the first Scot to play as a full-time professional in the WUSA playing for San Diego Spirit. She won the Scottish Women's League title with Ayr and seventeen major trophies with Arsenal.

History of rugby union in Scotland

Rugby union in Scotland in its modern form has existed since the mid-19th century. As with the history of rugby union itself however, it emerged from older traditional forms of football which preceded the codification of the sport. In the same manner as rugby union in England, rugby union in Scotland would grow at a significant rate to the point where Scotland played England in the first ever rugby union international in 1871, a match which was won by the Scottish team.

Scottish Women's Football (SWF), formerly known as the Scottish Women’s Football Association (SWFA) between 1972 and 2001, is the governing body for women's association football in Scotland. It is an affiliated national association of the Scottish Football Association (SFA).

Craigroyston Community High School is a non-denominational community secondary school in Edinburgh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women's football in Scotland</span>

Women's association football in Scotland has an organised history including the first international women's match in 1881, the president of the British Ladies' Football Club in 1895, Lady Florence Dixie, the Edinburgh–Preston "World Championship" in 1937 and 1939, and the Scottish Women's Cup founded in 1970. The sport is jointly overseen by Scottish Women's Football, the Scottish Football Association, and Scottish Professional Football League.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shelley Kerr</span> Scottish footballer and football manager

Michelle Kerr is a Scottish football manager and former player who is currently the English Football Association's technical lead for women's national teams. As a player Kerr was a powerful centre back, who captained Scotland as well as clubs including Kilmarnock and Hibernian. During her playing career, Kerr won every domestic honour in Scotland and played in the UEFA Women's Cup. She won 59 caps for Scotland between 1989 and 2008, scoring three goals.

Richie Dixon is a former rugby union footballer, the former head coach of the Scotland national team, the Georgia national team and Glasgow Caledonians. He was head of Physical Education at Currie High School in Edinburgh from 1972 until 1980.

Stevie Scott is a rugby union coach and former player who gained 11 caps with Scotland from 2000 to 2004. He played as hooker at Edinburgh and Border Reivers. He coached at Selkirk and Sale Sharks. He was assistant coach at Scotland and forward coach at Edinburgh Rugby.

Donna Kennedy is a Scottish rugby union coach and former international player who played for the national team from 1993 to 2010. She was the world's most-capped women's player from 2004 to 2016 and the first Scottish player — woman or man — to reach 100 international caps. As of November 2017, she remains the most-capped player in Scotland with 115 caps.

Sarah Law is a Scottish rugby player from Penicuik, near Edinburgh. She plays for Scotland and has represented them over fifty times internationally, including at the 2021 Women's Six Nations Championship. Law was the fourth Scottish woman to receive a professional rugby contract from Scotland. She kicked the match-winning penalty in the win against Wales in the 2017 Women's Six Nations Championship to beat the opposing team for the first time in seven years. The win was described a "historic rugby victory" by the Edinburgh Evening News. She repeated the feat under even more pressurised circumstances in 2021 when her 82nd minute conversion of a Chloe Rollie try put Scotland through to the qualification final for the Rugby World Cup at the expense of their opponents Ireland.

Lisa Thomson is a Scottish rugby union player, who captained for Scotland Women in 2018–19. She plays for Scotland and was vice-captain for the 2021 Women's Six Nations Championship.

References

  1. 1 2 Davidson, Gina (28 October 2013). "SFA women's chief says hails good times for Scots". Edinburgh Evening News. Archived from the original on 22 November 2018. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
  2. 1 2 Bean, Graham (15 February 2021). "Sheila Begbie, pivotal figure in women's sport in Scotland, to retire from rugby post". The Scotsman. Edinburgh. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
  3. ↑ Fraser, Karen (2020). "Sisters Doing it for themselves: the rich history of women's football in Scotland from the 1960s to 2020". Sport in History. 40:4: 465.
  4. ↑ "Head of Women's Rugby appointed". Scottish Rugby Union. 29 May 2014. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  5. ↑ Black, Gareth. "Sheila Begbie quits SFA to head up women's rugby". The Scotsman. Edinburgh. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  6. ↑ "Sheila Begbie leaves women's football for Scottish Rugby role". BBC Sport. 29 May 2014. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  7. ↑ "Begbie to spearhead development of grassroots rugby". Scottish Rugby Union. 31 August 2017. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  8. ↑ "Good year for Scots women". BBC Sport. 30 December 2000. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.