Balmer relishing captaincy chance

Balmer plays her Club rugby in England, where she is a leading player for Worcester, and she was thrilled to be selected as captain this season.

"Suzy Brown unfortunately made the decision to step down from all rugby so I??ve got some pretty big shoes to fill. She led from the front on and off the pitch. I got the call up and pretty much said yes straight away."

It has been a frustrating few years for Scotland, who haven't won a Six Nations game since 2010 and who will have to sit out the World Cup this summer having failed to qualify.

"We are not in the place we would want to be, so we have to focus on building our squad," their new skipper says.

"We??ve got eight new caps this season so everything for us is gearing towards the next four years. Obviously everyone was massively disappointing at how 2013 went, but we??ve got to look forward. The first thing is to get a good Six Nations under our belt ?? hopefully a win under our belt, as we haven??t had one of those for a while in this competition,?˜?˜so positivity is the word."

Balmer is excited to see new players in action and also looking forward to the return of others.

"As for new players, all of our players in the squad have been there and thereabouts for some time but this is the first time that some of them have been selected. We also have a few players who have come back from injury - Lisa Martin for example.?˜?˜She suffered?˜a serious injury to her knee but has now come back at full force. Also at centre Gillian Inglis?˜who was injured last season and is coming back again. We have some young players, like Sarah Law?˜who was on the fringe of things last year as scrumhalf but is coming into her own. Its is?˜quite an exciting time for us, and the increased competition for places means that as players we have to keep on toes and striving to get better and so it means good things for us."

Scotland have a tough start as they travel to Ireland to face the defending champions.

"They have such good support over there and a great crowd that gets behind them, so we are aware of the task in front of us. But you have to take each game as it comes and we??ll attack Ireland with everything we??ve got and we??ll see what happens with the result. If we didn??t go out thinking we could win there would?˜be no point playing. We??re looking to put our best performance in on the pitch and hopefully start our campaign with a solid away win."

Scotland are also going into the tournament with new coaching staff, which Balmer says has made a good impact.

??We obviously have new coaches in place now ?˜- Jules Maxton, Derek O??Riordan and Roland Reid - and the various training camps we have had have been going really well.?˜

??People will look at recent results in the Six Nations and, perhaps rightly so, think that we have struggled to compete at this level, but I genuinely believe that we are not as far away from the likes of England and Ireland as you might think.?˜

"We??re fit and healthy and everyone is hitting their targets. The cancellation of the Army game was a bit of a blow, but we hope we can address that at our?˜camp before we start next weekend."