Nina Colville was born in Wiltshire and showed her athletic prowess from an early age as she represented her school and county in hockey, netball and athletics, where she competed in as wide a range of disciplines as sprinting, shot and javelin.
 
But rugby played a part even then because her father Bryan Bishop was a keen prop or back row forward with Parkhouse (London), followed by Trowbridge and then Avondale (Bath), with Nina going along with her mum Jan once she was old enough to watch him play.
 

Amazing experience at Twickenham – and college in North Wales

 
In 1994 Nina was elected captain of the West Wiltshire Hockey Club as a free-scoring centre forward but then she helped found a women's rugby team called Avon Ladies, now known as Bath Ladies, and in 1995 they were honoured by being selected to play in front of a huge crowd at Twickenham as the curtain-raiser for the men's Heineken Cup Final.
 
"It was an amazing feeling to run out onto that hallowed turf," admitted Nina, "and I will never forget the experience of being cheered on by such a large crowd - or watching the Heineken Cup Final afterwards."
 
Nina then went on to university in Wrexham to study Sports Science and was chosen as captain there.
"I was a bit smaller in those days and so played scrum half," said Nina with a chuckle!
 

Highs and lows of rugby

 
After her graduation Nina returned to Avon Ladies and was honoured with the captaincy there from 2001 to 2003.
"I was playing some of my best rugby then," Nina told us,” and enjoyed playing highly competitive regional rugby for the South West England Ladies for a few seasons - and you can imagine how thrilled I was when I learned that I had been selected to play for the England Performance Academy.
 
"I was naturally eager to impress and in a practice match put in a daring tap tackle on a big forward and felt a searing pain in my wrist - but I carried on to finish the match and it was only later that the pain grew even more nasty and so I went to hospital for an x-ray and found I had broken my wrist so that I was out of contention as a result!"
 

Falling in love – twice over

 
Then she met her husband Thomas Colville in Bath and they moved to Builth Wells, where he played football and cricket before both discovered Pembrokeshire, falling in love with the county and moving here in 2004.
 
It soon became a mass family migration because Bryan and Jan did the same alongside youngest brother John - and sometime later her other brother Mark and his family settled here from Malaysia and ran the Ivybridge in Goodwick!
 
"I knew no-one in Pembrokeshire (outside Thomas) but gained an instant family when I rocked up at Fishguard & Goodwick RFC and said I was interested in playing for their ladies' team - and met my lifelong pals Min, Natalie and Paul Walsh, Natalie Bowen, Emily Banner and Lucy Peach (Berry).
 

Welsh involvement, with a bit of mime thrown in

 
"Within a short time I had been selected for West Wales (now the Scarlets), which was a bit of a surprise, but not as amazing as learning that I had been chosen for the Welsh Development squad  that included Natalie Bowen and Lucy Peach, to play the first game against an England team which had a number of my former team mates.
 
"It was a wonderful experience but the only problem was the fact that I had to mime the singing of the Welsh national anthem!
 "There was a number from the Army I had played with in England when we took them on for Wales - it was a small world indeed. We were also due to play South Africa but for some reason they didn't come to this country!
 
"I then had the call up for the Welsh team but I discovered that I was pregnant with my first son Kyran and had to tell the selectors I was unavailable!
 

Warm welcome at Whitland and an unusual signaling system

 
Fishguard then disbanded so Nina and Co transferred to a new Whitland squad that gave them a warm welcome and they were well looked after by team manager Sue Davies - with breast feeding and nappy changing becoming the order of the day in the pre-match dressing room, especially when she gave birth to daughter Cara at roughly the same time as Lucy Peach had her daughter Eliza.
 
"We both came back to training when the girls were a few months old and we developed a system for training where my dad was sitting in the car as both the babies were asleep in their car seats in the back.
 
"A left indicator flash meant that Eliza was awake and needed changing or feeding and a right indicator flash meant that Cara needed attention - and hazard warning lights going off on both sides meant they were both screaming!
 

Wonderful family support

 
"My dad was fabulous at training and he always said that he had four boys - but it was his daughter who was the rugby player! He has always been a huge inspiration for me and his booming bellows of support are legendary on match days - and all the team say that he is their adopted dad too!


"He, my mum and husband Thomas, who competed in the Welsh Iron Man 2015 and now relishes triathlon rather than team sports, have always provided total support which has allowed me to play away matches.”
 

Joining the Blues’ Ladies

 
But as the children grew older she found the commitment of three trips to Whitland each week got too much, especially after third child Harry came on the scene, and Clodagh Llewellin had started a team at nearby Haverfordwest.  So eight weeks after his birth she decided to go along, just to keep fit, but before she knew it she was back playing - and the wonders of women's rugby began again, with breast feeding and changing nappies at half time!
 
"I have been captain for the previous two campaigns and again this season but in September I broke my wrist and was out for a while - but I returned as promptly as soon as I could because I am aware that retirement is beckoning so I want to play at No 8 for as long as I can!"
"I have had good support from Haverfordwest Ladies' coaches Gareth Charles and Ben John, whilst Graham Brockway has done an inspirational job in keeping me fit at Merlins Bridge ABC, as well as instilling self-belief in what I can do."
 

And finally . . .

 
Nina has now been playing rugby on and off for 21 years and proved she is still playing well as she recently joined five Whitland and three other Haverfordwest players in helping the Scarlets' Ladies beat their counterparts from the Dragons by 38-5, as well as scoring four tries in an excellent Haverfordwest Ladies' cup success.
 
She has seen massive changes in stereotypes, opportunities and women's sport as a whole. She enjoys helping to coach St Davids under 10s, where son Kyran is starting out, happily acknowledges that women's rugby is growing and the game is on the cusp of professionalism at the highest level.
“My daughter Cara is currently involved in ballet and dance at the moment – but she already has a mean spin pass,” admitted Nina with a typical chuckle!
 
Nothing would give Nina Colville more satisfaction but in the meanwhile she is hoping for a couple more years’ involvement of her own and we wish her every success in that aim because she really is a credit to ladies' rugby in our county!