Nikki Walker (born 5 March 1982) is a Scottish

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player coach for

Hawick RFC Hawick Rugby Football Club is an semi-pro rugby union side, currently playing in the Scottish Premiership and Border League. The club was founded in 1885 and are based at Mansfield Park at Hawick in the Scottish Borders. Splinter from Hawick an ...

, who is retired from international competition having won 24 caps for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. He has played on the

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expres ...

for teams in Scotland, Wales and England, winning the

Pro12 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...

twice with the Ospreys. Nikki is sponsored by Hotel Chocolat’s Velvitiser range.

Rugby career

Walker was born 5 March 1982 in

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

, Scotland. He was part of the Hawick team than won the domestic club double in 2001–02. He then joined the

Border Reivers Border reivers were Cattle raiding, raiders along the Anglo-Scottish border from the late 13th century to the beginning of the 17th century. They included both Scotland, Scottish and England, English people, and they raided the entire border ...

in 2002. His first cap for Scotland came in November 2002 in an Autumn international against

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

Murrayfield Murrayfield is an affluent area to the west of Edinburgh city centre in Scotland. It is to the east of Corstorphine and north of Balgreen and Roseburn. The A8 road runs east–west through the south of the area. Murrayfield is often conside ...

. In 2006 he left Scotland for the Ospreys based in Swansea. This would prove to be a very successful period, playing a key role in the Ospreys winning the RaboDirect Pro 12 in 2006 and 2010, and earning him a recall to the National side. He made his first appearance for Scotland in more than four years as a replacement against Wales in the Six Nations 2007. He also started for Scotland against France, four weeks later, and scored a try in the seventh minute. He then scored his next try against Canada in the 2009 autumn Test in Aberdeen, repeating this again this time against Samoa in the 2010 autumn Test. He then scored his first Murryfield try for four years against Italy in the 2011 Six Nations Match which Scotland went on to win giving Italy the wooden spoon He was five minutes away to be going to the 2011 Rugby World Cup when he got injured in the warm-up match with Italy. In May 2012 he left the Ospreys to join

Worcester Warriors Worcester Warriors Rugby Football Club is a professional rugby union club, based in Worcester, England, that is currently in Administration (law), administration and which has been suspended and will be relegated from Premiership Rugby, the top ...

. After 10 months with

, Walker joined

Edinburgh Rugby Edinburgh Rugby (formerly Edinburgh Reivers, Edinburgh Gunners) is one of the two professional rugby union teams from Scotland. The club competes in the United Rugby Championship, along with the Glasgow Warriors, its oldest rival. Edinburgh play ...

in the summer of 2013. For the 2014–15 season, Walker is a player/coach with Hawick RFC, while still contracted to Edinburgh Rugby

References

External links

Ospreys profileScotland profile
1982 births Living people Border Reivers players Hawick Linden RFC players Hawick RFC players Ospreys (rugby union) players People educated at Hawick High School Rugby union players from Aberdeen Scotland international rugby union players Scottish rugby union players Worcester Warriors players Edinburgh Rugby players Rugby union wings 2003 Rugby World Cup players 2007 Rugby World Cup players {{Scotland-rugbyunion-bio-stub