IT has been a year in the making but, finally, Scotland’s first professional netball team will play their first competitive match. Tomorrow night, Sirens will take to the court for their inaugural match in the 2017 Vitality Netball Superleague and Claire Nelson, the woman who has been the driving force behind the creation of this team, is unequivocal about the fact that it will be a ground-breaking moment for the sport in this country. However, she once feared it is one she would never see.

Nelson is the chief executive of Netball Scotland and, since taking up the post in October of 2015, she has exhibited an ambition and drive to improve her sport with a vigour that cannot fail to inspire.

Sirens are the culmination of 12 months of blood, sweat and tears and Nelson admits it is a huge relief to be only one sleep away from match day, because there were times when she thought that the team might never get to this point.

“There were lots of times that I thought we weren’t going to make it, more times than I’d care to admit actually,” she says. “And there were lots of times when people told me it would be easier to quit than keep going because it was so hard.

“We were a tiny set-up with only a percentage of the finances needed and we had to go out and try to get athletes and build a team and a brand. It was hard, but what keeps you going is when things start to fall into place.”

To say that things have fallen into place nicely is an understatement. Sirens have been awarded the honour of opening the Superleague this year with their match against Wasps, taking place at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow in front of a sell-out crowd of 4,000. In addition, the game will be shown live on Sky Sports Mix.

This platform is wholly deserved: Sirens have assembled a squad filled with stars, including several Scottish internationals such as Claire Brownie, Rachel Forbes and Fiona Moore-McGrath.

There are world-class imports too. Sirens’ overseas players are Carla Borrego from Jamaica, a World Championship bronze medallist, and Ellen Halpenny, a New Zealander who won silver at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

The strength of the squad gives Nelson confidence that Sirens will most certainly not merely be in the Superleague to make up the numbers and in recent months she has noticed a significant change in attitude from the other teams towards Sirens. The English contingent have gone from being somewhat dismissive about playing a Scottish team to distinctly nervous about the prospect.

However, tomorrow’s opening game against Wasps will, admits Nelson, pose a significant challenge. “It’s been very sweet to see the change in attitude of the other teams – we believe we have one of the best teams in the league and everybody is nervous about playing us,” she said.

“The first match is going to be such a tough game but, of course, it would be great to get off to a winning start.

“Either team is capable of winning, so I’ll be watching through my fingers, but it’s going to be a world-class game of netball and that’s what everyone wants to see.”

With women’s sport still garnering considerably less sponsorship money and coverage than men’s sport, Nelson is keen to see Sirens shift the statistics as drastically as possible.

While she knows changing the landscape will be a long, hard battle, she is confident that Sirens can encourage progress over the coming season.

“Seeing a change happen for women’s sport is everything to me,” Nelson said. “It will be tough, though – if it was easy then everyone would be doing it and we would have complete parity already but that’s clearly not the case.

“But it’s in my nature to keep fighting and by the end of this season, if we’ve made some positive progress for women’s sport then everything will have been worth it.”