Jade Konkel will retire from rugby at the end of the 2025/26 season.
The talismanic No.8, 32, earned 74 caps for Scotland before retiring from international rugby after last year’s World Cup in England.
In 2016, Konkel made history as the first ever female player to sign a professional contract with Scottish Rugby and she was very much a trailblazer in that sense.
After spells at Hillhead Jordanhill and Lille Metropole Rugby Club Villeneuvois in France, she joined English club Harlequins in 2018, going on to be named club captain there in 2023.
Everything she has every got out of rugby she has had to fight hard for and earn while she has never been afraid to push herself out of her comfort zone.
That started around 2012 when she began making the long drive from her home in the Black Isle to Glasgow regularly to play for Hillhead Jordanhill and continued when she was first capped off the bench versus England as a 19-year-old in 2013. Since moving to London she has also expertly balanced her top level rugby career with working as a firefighter.
Konkel played in two World Cups and Harlequins head coach Ross Chisholm said: “Jade is an incredible leader and an even better person.
“She is someone who embodies what it means to be a Harlequin and I want to wish her all the best for what the future holds.
“I want to pay tribute to an amazing person and a wonderful career.”
Konkel herself said: “When I arrived at Harlequins in 2018, I didn’t come with a plan for how long I’d stay.
“I came with a love for rugby and a hope that I’d find a place where I could grow. Very quickly, this club became my home, a place that held me through every version of myself over the years and I could never have imagined how much this club would come to mean to me.
“But the season isn’t over yet. This is my last chapter. I’m here for this season all in, chasing standards and chasing success with this group. When it’s over, I want to know the tank is well and truly empty with nothing left on the pitch and nothing to chance. Until that final whistle, the work continues and I’m proud to be doing it in this jersey with this team.”
Jade Konkel is pictured – thanks to Harlequins