Vice-captain Ciara McCulloch believes Garioch have grown as a unit throughout the season and says squad are “hungry” and well prepared for their crucial ‘must win’ Arnold Clark Women’s Premiership clash at Cartha Queens Park on Saturday afternoon.
The Inverurie outfit are on the road to Glasgow for a match at Dumbreck at 2pm which will decide who will finish bottom of the eight-team top flight this term.
Going into last weekend’s final scheduled regular season games in the bottom half of the league, Cartha were bottom on 10 points and Garioch were seventh on 11 points.
Now Cartha are on 15 points and seventh after an emphatic 51-16 triumph at sixth placed Biggar while Garioch are bottom on 12 points after taking a four-try bonus from a 56-27 defeat to fifth placed Hillhead Jordanhill at home.
It means that in this rearranged match has everything on the line, the team that finishes seventh will go into the Sarah Beaney Cup in the new year and the eighth placed side will go into the Regional Play-off series with feeder league winners to battle it out for a 2026-27 top flight spot.
Despite losing last week, Garioch have taken nine points from their last four outings including a 50-26 bonus point win at Kellands Park versus Cartha back on November.
As a result, this really should be another cracker this weekend with Garioch knowing that only a win will do for them.
“We’re looking to build on everything we’ve developed throughout the season in this game,” 24-year-old back-rower McCulloch said.
“We’ve grown into a far more attacking side, really going after tries and being aggressive in the contact area, especially around securing our own ruck ball. We know what’s required to get the result we want and the whole group is hungry for it.
“It’s been a big week of preparations at training making sure we have tightened up any details so we can deliver a complete performance in the game.
“We can definitely take confidence from the performance we put in against Cartha at home recently as well as the bonus points we’ve picked up in this second stage of the season after the top four/bottom four split.
“At the same time, we haven’t played Cartha away yet so it’s a new challenge. The journey gives us a good opportunity to come together, reset and make sure we’re fully aligned before we step onto the pitch. We know it can be hard to play away, but we’ll also back the momentum we’ve built and hopefully take it to them.”
Garioch squad for the game: Lesley Davis; Charlotte Burrows, Jade Scott, Nikki Simpson, Heather Small; Laura Keay, Laura Milne; Lindsey McDiarmid, Alex Ward, Megan Riach, Jodie Dalgarno (C), Bronwen Mullinor, Sammy Ross, Ella Johnson, Ciara McCulloch. Subs: Aimee Coutts, Eilidh Craig, Claire Moloney, Saba Alexander, Sheila Legus-Christman.
- Garioch have a home game for the seconds on the same day with another 19 players pulling on the shirt at home at Kellands Park.
The last time Cartha played Garioch in November, when the Inverurie side won 50-26, is pictured – thanks to Gareth Falls
From November 14 to December 14, GH Media will be featuring on all aspects of women’s rugby in Scotland including the exciting conclusion to the domestic Premiership, news on Scots playing down south and lots more during a busy month.