NICOLA McCleery admits she and her Scotland team-mates were apprehensive as they finalised their preparations for the Netball Europe Championships last week. Since it had been almost a year since they last played an international match, McCleery wasn’t sure what to expect. In the event, she had nothing to worry about as there was not a sign of ring-rustiness.

The Scots, who are ranked 12th in the world, had a tough opener in Cardiff, taking on the eighth-best team in the world in Fiji. They could not have asked for a better performance, claiming a comfortable 52-34 win.

“It was nerve-wracking going into the tournament because we knew what we were capable of but we needed to actually do it when it mattered,” McCleery said. “Starting against Fiji was perfect for us, though – it got rid of all the nerves.

“On paper, we shouldn’t have beaten them but I had a feeling we were going to win. And after that victory, we just stepped it up game after game.”

Following their opening win, Scotland were up against the world No 3 side, England, and while a 61-48 defeat halted the Scots’ momentum, their performance strengthened their belief even further, leading to a victory over Wales, ranked seventh in the world. A one-goal defeat to Northern Ireland on the final day saw the Scots miss out on the silver medal by the finest of margins but McCleery admits she and her team-mates could not have been more pleased with the way the tournament went.

“It was one of the best weekends we’ve had in years. It went better than even we expected,” the 22 year-old Glaswegian said. “We were all on such a high the entire weekend.

“This group is brilliant, from the players to the coaches to the support staff. We’re all so close and the team spirit is fantastic. We’re not in it for ourselves, we’re in it for each other. It’s a young group and everybody is so enthusiastic. So many people have said this is the best Scotland team they have seen in years.”

Much of the improvement is down to the experience many of the national team players have gained from being part of the squad at Sirens, Scotland’s first professional netball team.

The club’s sixth-place finish in their inaugural season in the Netball Superleague this year has done wonders for McCleery and the team, and with both the World Cup qualifiers and the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the horizon, She is delighted that the players’ individual improvements are benefiting the national team so significantly.

“The experience we’ve had with Sirens has clearly made a massive difference to the national team because we’ve all stepped up our game,” she said. “We’ve put in so much hard work off court and behind the scenes and that’s now starting to show. In the past, if we went down by three or four goals, we’d have fallen away but now we have the belief that we can get it back so our mentality has changed in that respect. And physically, we’re much more intense now.

“This feels like this is just the start of things. We all know that we still have another level to go to, which is so

exciting. We’ll go back to training knowing what we need to work on and we know that we don’t need to be scared of anyone now, which is such a great feeling.”

McCleery began playing netball in primary school in her home town of East Kilbride, with the sole aim of becoming better than her older sister. However, she quickly showed potential and rose through the junior ranks to captain Scotland Under-17s at the 2012 European Championships, where they finished third.

McCleery, who plays either wing attack or goal attack, remains relatively new to the senior game, with her involvement in the Superleague this year her first taste of that level. However, despite having accumulated only nine caps so far, she has staked a serious claim for regular selection for the international team as the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games approach.

That McCleery has been able to perform to such a high level on court is remarkable considering how busy her life has been recently. Having grad-uated as a PE teacher in the summer, she began her probationary year of teaching at Trinity High School in Rutherglen in South Lanarkshire and she admits she barely has a minute to take a breath, so packed is her schedule.

“The last few months have been crazy. I’m just so busy,” she said. “I’m going to crash and burn at some point, but hopefully not until next year.

“I train in the morning, go straight to school, do more work after the kids go home, and then train again. And I’ve set up a netball team at school too, which is fantastic, but that has given me even more to do!

“The school have been great in giving me time off for tournaments, though – the head teacher is really sporty and the other staff are so supportive so that’s been brilliant.”

McCleery admits the children she teaches are not always overjoyed about getting a replacement lesson when she is away competing but they, too, have been hugely supportive.

“On Monday, some of the kids were coming up to me asking me how the team got on at Netball Europe, which was really nice,” she said.

“The school is in a very deprived area so hopefully I’m helping them realise that sport can be a career. It’s really nice that they’re so interested in how I’m doing and it also makes me want to do well because I know they’re watching.”