They say that good things come to those who wait and Rachel Philipps showed great patience over the last seven months or so before finally earning her first full Scotland cap recently against England.
The physical, hard running centre was called up to the national team squad last September ahead of home Tests with Wales and Fiji and then the WXV 2 competition in South Africa.
She never got into a matchday 23 during that period or in the first three games of the Guinness Women’s Six Nations, but she kept plugging away in the background and her chance came off the bench against England in Leicester on April 19.
Philipps became Scotland cap number 247 – and the seventh new face to make a debut during this tournament – when she came on in the 72nd minute of the 59-7 loss at Mattioli Woods Welford Road in round four of the showpiece event.
The 23-year-old Sale Sharks player said: “It was obviously quite a long build up to my first cap, but ever since I have been part of the group the senior players have been brilliant with me and I have a good support network of family and friends away from rugby so I just kept working hard in training and I knew my chance would come.
“Once I was told that I was going to be on the bench against England, again, the senior players were helpful last week making sure I wasn’t overthinking things in the build up to the game.
“I really just focused on what my role would be if I got on the pitch and that helped me to get rid of any nerves that were there.
“When I did get the nod to go on I knew that my parents and my godparents were watching in the stands and I was feeling excited, but, again, because I was coming on for stand-off Helen Nelson it meant a rejig to the midfield so I was more concentrating on getting messages on to Lisa Thomson and Emma Orr than thinking about the magnitude of it being my first cap.
“Once the game was over, I could then take it all in a bit more and it really hit me when my parents were able to come onto the pitch and see me get my cap presented.
“That was special and it was really special to share the day with fellow debutantes Rhea Clarke [cap 245] and Gemma Bell [cap 246] because I was at university in Edinburgh with Rhea and have come through the pathway system with her while I have known Gemma a while too and it’ll always be a day that the three of us remember.”
As well as her parents and godparents, as it was the Easter holidays, Philipps also had some pupils who she taught during the 2023/24 school year as a PE teacher at St David’s RC High School in Dalkeith near Edinburgh in Leicester watching with their families.
That acts as a stark reminder that a lot has happened for her in the last 12 months because this time last year she was carrying out that job and playing for top Scottish club side Watsonians.
“This week I have been able to step back and look at the bigger picture and it’s fair to say the last year has been pretty crazy and I could never have imagined where I would be now,” Philipps stated.
“Last April I had just come back from an MCL injury and I had not played any of the earlier cup games, but I managed to get back to play in the Sarah Beaney Cup final for Watsonians at Murrayfield.
“We won that game [34-5 versus Hillhead Jordanhill with Philipps scoring a try] and it was great to be back out there on the pitch.
“From there things started to happen rugby-wise pretty quickly. I was offered the opportunity to join Sale Sharks and I really wanted to do that so I jumped at the chance. I moved to Manchester, took part in the pre-season last summer and was then given a late call up to train with Scotland in the build up to the September Tests and WXV 2.
“When the squad for those matches was then finalised it was a surprise, but a good one, to see my name in there and since then it has been pretty non-stop.
“After South Africa I headed straight back to Sale and managed to get some good minutes under my belt in the condensed PWR season and that was invaluable.
“I felt like I came into Six Nations camp in good shape as a result of that and, now that I have my first cap, I just want to try and kick on from here.”
Philipp’s rugby journey began at Biggar when she was 15 after a taster session at the local high school she attended caught her imagination.
“I then went down to the rugby club to try it out more and I really did enjoy it from day one,” she explained.
“It was good that it was an athletic sport, but also one where you could be a bit physical too and I enjoyed that.
“I had played netball before and I was often getting flagged for contact and sticking my elbows in whereas that is more acceptable in rugby!
“The girls section at Biggar is brilliant and the club really works hard at it and it meant that I was coming straight into a very structured environment.
“The club has brought through so many good female players in recent times – for example it was great to be on the pitch with Emma Orr in Leicester – and the grounding and coaching I received at Hartree Mill really helped me and pushed me on to where I am now.”
- Scotland back-row Evie Gallagher is in the mix for the Player of the Guinness Women’s Six Nations Championship award, more details here.
Rachel Philipps is pictured with her fan club and with fellow newbies Gemma Bell and Rhea Clarke after the England match recently in Leicester
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