On Saturday, while Finn Russell will be attempting to help Scotland retain the Calcutta Cup at Murrayfield, partner Emma Canning will face her own battle as she tries to salvage her athletics career in Glasgow.

A stress fracture to a shin, two operations, then the pandemic have robbed the 24-year-old of nearly four years of competing.

Her pride and confidence was battered as her first foray back “didn’t go to plan”. Only now does the Glasgow-born heptathlete finally feel she is beginning to enjoy it again.

“Last year, I really struggled mentally, emotionally and physically,” Canning told BBC Scotland. “My last competitions really were 2018. I don’t think I appreciated at the time how much of a strain that was on me.

“Last year was my first time at having a good run of training and then I can’t really call it anything other than a disaster. I don’t even know what happened, it was almost like I didn’t have any answers to what I was doing in terms of performance.

“I re-evaluated everything because I was healthy, I was training well, so I couldn’t understand why I was competing so badly. But I think the emotional toll and having not competed for so long, it just all got a bit much and I was thinking, ‘do I even want to go through all that again?’

“But I took a longer break last summer and then decided ‘no, I’m not ready to give it up yet’ and that’s why I’ve decided to stick it out and go again.”

At 19, Canning was prepared for the discomfort of having a metal plate and screws inserted into her leg just as her career was beginning – but it went beyond that.

“It took away the enjoyment because I was just training in pain,” she says.

She made the decision to have the plate removed, which subsequently ended her 2018 season. The hardest part was watching those she once competed alongside fly high in their careers while she could only look on from the side-lines.

While Scotland fly-half Russell’s career took him to France with Racing 92, a year later the opportunity presented itself for Canning to join the French National Institute for Sport, something she described as the best decision she ever made.

Now Canning heads into Saturday’s DNA Athletics event in Glasgow, where she will compete in the long jump, spurred on by winning her first two national titles in consecutive weekends.

‘I’ve got a decision to make’

Scotland host Saturday’s DNA Athletics event at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena and take on England, Wales, Ireland, Spain and Portugal in the inaugural contest, to be shown live on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app.

The six nations, with up to 18 athletes in each team, take part in 11 events across the two-hour competition.

It will be Canning’s first time in the spotlight but the competition will also help shape her future as this year’s Commonwealth Games fast approaches.

“I’ve got a decision to make in the next few weeks, whether I continue with the heptathlon or just focus on the long jump – but I’m going to wait and see how I jump this weekend,” she says.

“I’ve never actually competed in front of a big crowd or a hyped event. It means a lot. I wasn’t expecting to get the call up for it so to be in the team and have an opportunity to compete in front of a home crowd, it could be a real turning point.

“I’m trying not to put pressure on myself but I want to grab the opportunity with both hands.”