FOUR years ago, when Emily Nicholl was sitting in the stands watching the netball at Glasgow 2014, she had no idea that at the next Commonwealth Games she would be an integral member of the Scottish squad.

The 23-year-old from Biggar was no more than a recreational player until just a few years ago and having never represented Scotland even at junior level, the prospect of competing at the Commonwealth Games had never crossed her mind.

But since having been invited to train with the Scotland squad two-and-a-half years ago, her progress has been quick and she is now an established internationalist as well as a regular player in the UK-wide Netball Superleague for her club team, UWS Sirens.

Nicholl was one of the 12-strong netball squad that was named as part of Team Scotland for the Commonwealth Games and she admits her rapid rise has surprised her more than anyone.

“I’d never have believed this could have happened. I come from out in the country so I only played at school because we didn’t even have any clubs,” she said. “I went to Edinburgh Uni and played there but then all of a sudden, I was in the national team. I started off thinking that I’d just train with the Scotland squad and now, I’m going to a Commie Games, it’s surreal.

“I always say I’m like a swan, people think that on top, I look all calm but underneath, it’s frantic.”

The Scottish Thistles have improved out of sight in recent years, with their progress highlighted last month when they defeated Northern Ireland and Wales – both higher ranked than Scotland – at the World Cup qualifiers. These results have given Nicholl the belief that come Commonwealth Games-time, Scotland can outperform their world ranking of nine.

“We’re part of something pretty special. As a team, we have so much belief,” she said.

“We were the lowest-ranked team in the World Cup qualifiers competition so to win both games was a big boost.

“Moving up the rankings is a big goal for us. We feel we’re a top-eight team but really, we don’t see any limits.”

Nicholl, who has taken a year out of her law career to concentrate on netball, attributes much of the national team’s improvement to the physical gains they have made.

“We know we’re in the best shape we’ve ever been and we’re one of the fittest teams out there,” she said. “We’re on the other team’s back the whole time, you can’t shake us so if anyone is going to beat us, they’re going to have to prove that they’re better than us because they’re not just going to get over the line because we’re tired.

“It’s all about pushing ourselves to our absolute limit. We did a session the other day and by the end, half of the players were crying because it was so hard. But that’s great because we know we’ve got this common goal and the beauty of a team sport is that we’re all in this together.”