For Scotland women, 2022 was the complete metaphorical rollercoaster. It was a year that started on a huge high with Rugby World Cup 2021 qualification secured against Colombia. The year drew to a close with news of the centrally contracted players and the upcoming launch of the Thistles representative side.  However, the victory over Colombia was to prove the only win for the XVs side in between, with committed performances ending up in a lot of near misses. There were huge step forwards off the field with the launch of the women and girls’ strategy from Scottish Rugby, but the most deva ..read more

By Allan MacDonald I owe Siobhan Cattigan a huge debt of gratitude. It was the first time I had taken my daughter to rugby. She’d always turned down the chance to come to Murrayfield with me but, after going with the school, she asked if I would take her to see Scotland Women play Canada. We cheered as Siobhan and her teammates carried ball after ball through heavy traffic and we were gutted at the thoroughly undeserved but narrow loss. As we left the stadium, she turned and asked if I would take her to rugby training. The season ended with me proudly watching as she played in the girls U15 fi ..read more

In their final pool match, Scotland face their toughest assignment against reigning champions New Zealand. There is only one change to the starting line-up, with Sevens try-machine Shona Campbell in at full back, in place of Chloe Rollie.  Emma Orr was massive in defence last week, earning her a place in Rugby World’s team of the round, and will have to put in a similar shift this week to contain the talented Black Ferns.  Captain Dr Rachel Malcolm is top of the tackle stats for the tournament, with Jade Konkel-Roberts and Emma Wassell also in the top 10 performers. Scotland will hop ..read more

Another week, another tight loss. This time we did heartbreak the opposite way round with a solid start eventually being ground down into a loss. Australia may have been overwhelming favourites going into the game, but somehow that makes it feel even worse that they couldn’t build on a good first half to see out the win, even as the Australia forwards in particular dragged them back into the game.  Let’s try pick out the positives and try work out where it went wrong for Scotland. Tireless defence  – it’s certainly hard to fault Scotland’s defensive efforts, with the team once again ..read more

Scotland have made two changes as they look to turn their tournament around against the Wallaroos after the tight-as-can-be loss to Wales. Neither of the changes are huge surprises, as Rachel McLachlan and Emma Orr shake off minor knocks to return to the starting XV. This means that Scotland have the same starting backs from the USA game, and this might be our strongest backline – certainly a more physical one. Megan Gaffney’s two tries may not have been enough to make up for missing the most tackles against Wales and having the worst tackle completion rate in the team. Australia have fast and ..read more

Sunday saw another chapter in the big book of Scottish rugby heartbreak and, as the closest and most nail-biting of the matches in the first round of this year’s World Cup, generated a lot of conversation. Here are some notable points from the game: We can build from a strong set-piece Scotland were dominant at the scrum and the line out. Their driving maul was also potent – with Wales often having to stop this dominance illegally. Having watched Australia’s last few matches, although they improve game on game, set piece might be one area where they are slightly weaker than the teams around th ..read more

One exciting feature of the Scotland World Cup squad is the number of players born in a year beginning with 2. Although a little hard to swallow for those of us who were adults (sort of) in the year 2000, this is the generation who are likely to spend nearly their whole senior careers as professional rugby players. As the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand begins, what will these very young guns bring to the squad? In the forwards, I hoped to be raving about Evie Gallagher, who has sadly been ruled out by injury. She topped the list for Scotland for metres made in the Women’s Six Nations and her c ..read more

When the news came through that Scottish Rugby will be awarding a minimum of 30 pro rugby contracts to Scotland’s women players after the world cup, I felt a mixture of elation and relief. The reason for the elation is obvious – this is a fantastic team and it’s great to see them getting at least the minimum support they deserve and that they need to stay competitive as professionalisation spreads across the women’s game. And relief: as a fan who doesn’t always have a lot of faith in the SRU getting things right and had been worried Scotland might get left behind on professionalisation – at a ..read more

Despite the fans and pundits excitement following a promising first outing, Scotland failed to better the men’s result in Wales at Cardiff Arms Park on the weekend. Lana Skeldon celebrated her 50th cap by opening the scoring after a set piece maul powered over the line. Scotland kept Wales pinned into their own half for at least 20 minutes which silenced the crowd and excited the visiting fans. Wales then regrouped and started to get into the game. After a number of phases in Scotland’s red zone, Carys Phillips touched down to bring the home side level. The visitors responded well, showing pow ..read more

A record crowd and broad sunshine greeted both teams at the DAM Health stadium in Edinburgh for the opening game of the 2022 TikTok Six Nations. Scotland took to the field with some new confidence after their World Cup qualification against Columbia. A win was on their mind against the oncoming juggernaut that is the fully professional England team, but without disrespect to Colombia this was a considerable step up in quality of oppositon. Scotland started well, putting England under pressure in contact and at the breakdown. Their set-piece looked controlled and their forwards looked every bit ..read more