Rugby players will always remember their first ever Scotland call up, but given the ups and downs Holly McIntyre has had to go through since she was first with the national team two-and-a-half years ago, her attendance at this week’s training camp at Oriam may be just as special to her.
In mid to late 2023 – having come through the rugby ranks with local club Ayr, Edinburgh University, the Thistles, Scotland age-grade teams, the Futures and with Edinburgh Rugby women just beginning at the time – McIntyre was named in the full Scotland squad for the WXV 2 event in South Africa.
However, disaster struck for the uncapped centre when she suffered ACL and meniscus injuries to her knee before the squad departed for the event which they would ultimately go on and win.
That injury meant a year out for her, but McIntyre worked incredibly hard on her rehab and, by late 2024, she was playing BUCS Super Rugby games for her university side.
However, just before Christmas that year she played 54 minutes for Edinburgh on her debut for them in a Celtic Challenge win over Glasgow Warriors at Hive Stadium before suffering another meniscus injury.
More surgery was required and another spell out of the game, but since the summer of 2025 she has been feeling good and life has taken her from being an overage player with Scotland under-20s at the Six Nations Women’s Summer Series in Wales to being a university graduate who is now a Montpellier player in France who is back in the wider national team mix.
“I am super excited to have been back involved in a Scotland camp,” 23-year-old McIntyre, who was one of 22 uncapped players in new head coach Sione Fukofuka’s first 50-strong training squad that met this week, said.
“It’s obviously quite a big group, but I was just enjoying being back in amongst the girls again. I was really quite surprised to get the call up, but was really excited by it.
“In terms of Scotland and my aims for that, it’s definitely not changed. It’s definitely my goal to play for my country one day and I’ll just keep working hard to try and get there.”
Sometimes to push on in life you have to go outside your comfort zone and immense credit must be given to McIntyre for making the move to play in France at the start of the 2025/26 season.
“As I was approaching the summer event with the under-20s and my graduation I knew that being a professional rugby player was my absolute dream,” the interior design graduate explained.
“My interior design career is something that I always want to come back to in the future, but while I’m young enough I want to have a really good crack at playing the highest level of rugby I can.
“I didn’t really know how to go about it, to be honest so I created like a rugby CV and just began contacting clubs.
“Montpellier was one of the first clubs that got back to me and we started talking. I was emailing the recruitment manager at the club and then I had a couple of phone calls with people at Montpellier and they were super positive.
“After those phone calls, I just had a really good gut feeling about it and I was like ‘this is what I want to do’ so things kept progressing and Montpellier signed me.
“Playing in the south of France specifically is something that me and my dad have always spoken about because the rugby culture there is something that you hear about and it’s so appealing for so many different reasons.
“Having time out with injuries had put a lot of things into perspective for me and I really wanted to prioritise having a lifestyle that I enjoyed on and off the pitch.
“I am proud that I was brave enough to do something different and take the leap and move to Montpellier. I can say a few months on that it certainly has not disappointed.
“With my partner [Giselle Chicot, the former Heriot’s Watsonians and Edinburgh player who is now also with Montpellier] having grown up in France and speaking French, that made things a bit easier in terms of the logistics of the move and, after the two of us had a number of positive discussions, we knew it was a move we wanted to make together.
“Rugby-wise, I want to test myself and I am with the club because I think being in Montpellier will make me a better rugby player. I felt like to make me better, I needed to be playing senior rugby in a competitive environment like there is at the club and in France.
“When I first headed over to France I wanted to work on my physicality, I wanted to work on my individual game and I wanted to work on my team work and being a solid team mate and I think that in the last few months I have managed to make strides in all of those areas. It hasn’t all been plain sailing, but I feel like I have settled in well at Montpellier and everyone at the club has been so welcoming.”
As well as McIntyre and fellow centre Chicot, experienced Scotland back-rower Rachel McLachlan is also on the books at Montpellier and is in her second season there.
Montpellier are currently fifth in the 10-team Elite One top flight league with fixtures resuming after a break this coming weekend.
“It has been so good having Rachel around too because she was with the club last season and knows how things work so she has been a great sounding board for Giselle and myself,” McIntyre concluded.
“Given her French family connections, Giselle’s French is obviously excellent, Rachel’s is good and mine is getting there, but learning the language is just another part of this exciting chapter and I am just embracing everything on and off the pitch right now.”
Holly McIntyre is pictured – thanks to Scottish Rugby and Montpellier