It has been confirmed that Scotland under-18 men’s head coach Ross Miller has been brought into the national women’s team set up as forwards coach for the Rugby World Cup period.
Miller, who led the under-18 men at the Six Nations Festival in April, is no stranger to a large number of the women’s squad having been with them in a similar capacity for the World Cup in New Zealand in 2022.
The former Melrose player joined up with the group this week as they got their preparations underway for the showpiece event in England in August and September.
He joins a coaching panel that has head coach Bryan Easson, backs coach Matt Banahan and defence coach Tyrone Holmes in it and Miller replaces Fraser Brown.
Last July it was announced that, following Martin Haag’s departure, Brown would be joining the coaching set up on a consultancy basis as the forwards coach up to and during the WXV 2 tournament.
That went well and he worked with the national team during the recent Six Nations, but during the event the former hooker, who made 141 appearances for Glasgow Warriors and earned 61 caps for Scotland men before retiring at the end of 2023/24, announced that he had a new post as scrum coach for both Ealing Trailfinders and Trailfinders Women.
He stayed with Scotland until the end of the Six Nations, but is now away and Miller is in.
“I’ve worked with Ross for a long time and known him a long time and he did a great job with us at the last World Cup,” Easson said.
“He has his ambitions around the men’s game and Scotland under-18s and being involved in the 20s and he continues to have those ambitions.
“But when I asked [if he was keen to join up as forwards coach] he bit my hand off. We’ve been talking over the last month and he’s been working with Fraser just to make sure that he’s got the hand over properly.
“I think he’s a brilliant addition to the group. He knows the players and the players know him which helps.
“He came in on Monday and hit the ground running. It’s a good coaching team we have in place and we’ve all worked together before so it’s exciting.”
- With week one of the World Cup training camps just finished, Easson has given a bit more detail on how things will work in the coming weeks.
Weeks commencing June 2 [the one just gone], June 9, June 16, June 23 and June 30 will see training camps held in Edinburgh.
From July 7 the squad will have some downtime and will then meet back up again around the middle of the week commencing July 14.
A few days will then be spent in Edinburgh before a full week in Italy ahead of the first Summer Test in Viadana on July 25.
Next up is the Summer Test in Cork versus Ireland on August 2 before, soon after, the 38-strong squad will be cut to 32 to head down south for the World Cup with the first game versus Wales on August 23 in Manchester.
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Ross Miller is pictured
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