In 2023 Francesca McGhie scored a wonder try against Ireland that she will never forget – and now the 21-year-old has scored one in 2025 that will live long in the memory too.
The one two years ago was her first in a Scotland jersey and helped the team win 36-10 with a bonus point while the one on Saturday in the Guinness Women’s Six Nations also helped to clinch a bonus point triumph, but in more dramatic circumstances.
With the round five match at Hive Stadium tied at 19-19 the clock was heading towards the red and the home side’s stand-off Helen Nelson had just returned from the sin bin.
A good lineout move gave the Scots momentum and, when it was shipped wide, replacement Lucia Scott stayed calm to pick up a bouncing ball to feed it onto winger McGhie who finished things off for a try and spark celebrations.
Nelson nailed the conversion from out wide for good measure and the 26-19 win was a crucial one ahead of a break and then Rugby World Cup preparation and the big event itself later in the year.
“Lucia is great under pressure and that moment when she got the ball to me showed that, she is a great asset to our squad,” McGhie, the Leicester Tiger who now has 10 tries in 22 caps, said.
“It was an amazing feeling to score that try.
“All week in the lead up to the game we were focusing on being ourselves and being brave and I think in those last few moments we were brave.
“When Nelly came back on with 30 seconds or so to go and we had a good lineout position we said ‘right girls this is go time’ and we stuck to our processes and got the job done.
“In the first half we were defending for pretty much 40 minutes so to go in ahead was massive for us. That showed the bravery we had been talking about while we also took the two chances in attack that we had.
“Our defence was really what this win was built on and we gave it everything and were brave on both sides of the ball.
“We definitely didn’t want to peak during the Six Nations, we wanted to be continuing along an upward trajectory and I think that is where we are going.
“There is lots to learn from this Six Nations which we will be bringing into things when we come back together in June to build up to the World Cup and we are just looking forward to it.”
- Shona Campbell is in America with GB Sevens getting ready to play in the final SVNS Series event of 2024/25 at the weekend – more here.
Francesca McGhie is pictured scoring the winning try versus Ireland – thanks to N50 Photography
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