Scotland’s women will have six out of their 10 Test matches during the 2026/27 season at home and assistant senior coach Ioan Cunningham would “100 percent” like to see the side back at Murrayfield at some stage.
The WXV Global Series and Women’s Six Nations fixtures for next term were confirmed on Wednesday and, in September, Scotland will have home games with Canada, New Zealand and Australia before home matches in April and May with Ireland, Italy and Wales.
They will be away to Australia twice in October and away to England and France in April.
Last month, Scotland played a Test match at Murrayfield (67,144 capacity) when England were in Edinburgh and while they lost the Six Nations clash 84-7 a record crowd of 30,498 was in attendance.
The women’s team had played eight games at Murrayfield before that one starting with Sweden in 2002, two games in 2004, two in 2005, two in 2006 and one in 2020.
The first seven of those were played as double headers alongside men’s games while the 2020 game was on a snowy Monday afternoon in front of a handful of people behind closed doors when Scotland played England after Scotstoun in Glasgow had been deemed unplayable thanks to Storm Ciara the day before.
As a result, last month’s game was something special and while most of next year’s home games will likely be played at the team’s regular home of Hive Stadium (around 7,800 capacity), Cunningham hopes to see the team running out at Murrayfield again at some point.
“It would be great to go back to Murrayfield, 100 percent,” the Welshman who has Scottish family connections said.
“I thought the England game there was outstanding, what an occasion.
“It was a special day and it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up just coming in off the bus.
“The whole atmosphere was fantastic. I think we learned a load from it as a wider group and as a playing group.
“If we get that opportunity to play there again we would relish it.”
And although Cunningham and co are fully focused on the final Test of this campaign away to Ireland on Sunday in the Six Nations,. He admits the 2026/27 fixture list is exciting.
He enthused: “It’s fantastic, isn’t it?
“Later in the year we’ve got a World Cup finalist team in Canada coming to play us, we’ve got a team ranked in the top three in the world in the Black Ferns coming here and then we’ve got three tests against Australia with one at home and two away – what an opportunity.
“And then we have three home games in the Six Nations next year and trips to play two of the best teams in the world.
“The global calendar is something that’s really exciting.
Everyone’s getting a chance to play each other more often and everyone is chasing world ranking spots and what comes with that.”
- Talking of big matches and crowds, over 30,000 tickets have now been sold for the Ireland-Scotland game at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Sunday.
Ioan Cunningham and the big Murrayfield crowd versus England are pictured – thanks to Scottish Rugby
The Women’s Six Nations is here and the 2026 event runs from April 11 to May 17 and, between April 6 and May 20, GH Media will be covering Scotland’s campaign and the wider tournament – keep an eye out for content and thanks to everyone who supports GH Media’s work within women’s rugby