The one constant in sport is that nothing is constant.
Just like modern life, modern sport at the elite level is always moving at 100 miles an hour and changing quicker than Francesca McGhie can run down the wing.
Off the back of Scotland’s impressive showing at the recent Women’s Rugby World Cup where they reached the quarter-finals before losing to hosts and eventual winners England there was always going to be a reset of sorts.
After all, when a World Cup cycle ends there is usually change, but it is fair to say the Scotland set up is changing more than perhaps some would have liked given that the team are sitting at number six in the world rankings and want to build from where things are now.
Head coach Bryan Easson has left, his trusty assistant Tyrone Holmes has left and Jade Konkel, Lisa Cockburn and Caity Mattinson – with 148 caps between them – have retired from the international fold.
Scottish Rugby recently confirmed its annual women’s contracting model for the 2025/26 season and, going forward, 17 players with full contracts will be supported in their development within the PWR and French league structures, 11 players with full contracts and seven players with development contracts will be based in Scotland and a further 15 emerging players will have day to day access to the high-performance programme based at Oriam on the outskirts of Edinburgh.
There was a lot to take in from the announcement last Thursday and within the number of 35 contracted players – 28 full and seven development – 22 of them are World Cup squad members. That means that 11 out of the 33 players who were in England with the Scots during August and September now don’t have contracts.
We know that Jade Konkel, Lisa Cockburn and Caity Mattinson are three of those 11, but we will have to wait to find out who the other eight for certain as the names of those players contracted to Scottish Rugby – and the 15 emerging players – have not been released as yet.
We are assured that the list of those names will be made public at some point in the near future, but there is little doubt that supporters would have liked some clarity over who is in this 35-strong group – and ideall who the 15 emerging players are – straight away.
It is hard for youngsters to aspire to be like your role models when you don’t know who those role models are after all.
“Over the next few weeks we’ll talk about the players, the management team, the new head coach and everything that goes alongside that,” Scottish Rugby SEO Alex Williamson assured journalists on the contracting model Zoom call last week.
The management team Williamson mentioned presumably refers to the two new posts that have been created to head up women’s rugby for the governing body.
These are managing director of women’s rugby and head of women’s performance pathways off field roles and, on top of a new head coach, Scottish Rugby are looking to appoint two new assistant coaches as well.
Five key jobs to fill then with currently six months to go until Scotland play their next scheduled competitive match away to Wales in the Guinness Women’s Six Nations 2026 opener on April 11.
Seven days after that Scotland will host world champions England at Murrayfield. Ticket sales are going well for that one and it should be a brilliant occasion.
But in the lead up to it and Wales the week before one cannot help thinking that the next few months must be full of clarity, communication and strong appointments in key roles if Scotland are to kick on from where they are now.
These are exciting times in women’s rugby – 444,465 tickets were sold for games during the World Cup – and Scotland want to be a part of the continued growth of the global game.
However, given that skipper Rachel Malcolm said the build up to the World Cup was “very disruptive” with coach change news and contract discussions going on and that the aforementioned Konkel asked for some more “respect” after the way her non-contract news was delivered to her, there is still quite a lot of groundwork to be done it would seem until the players and the Scottish Rugby hierarchy are on the same page.
We all know that for Scotland to continue to punch above their weight in the women’s game everyone – the players, the Scottish Rugby hierarchy and the supporters – all need to be on that same page, so let’s hope that clarity, communication and strong appointments in key roles come soon.
Williamson said that managing director of women’s rugby and head of women’s performance pathways roles would be named “in the next week or so” so hopefully we will hear about those soon.
And performance director David Nucifora said the governing body have received interest in the vacant head coaching job “from all different corners of the world” and that news on this and the assistants in place “over the next couple of months”.
In terms of the head of women’s performance pathways Scotland record cap holder Donna Kennedy would be a great appointment while coaching-wise hopefully Scottish Rugby have picked up the phone to Jo Yapp – the former England cap who has just left her head coaching role with Australia women – and Iain Monaghan, the Scot who is a Canada assistant coach and just helped them finish runners up at the World Cup.
Kennedy, Yapp and Monaghan may be impossible ‘gets’, but we shall see what evolves and Williamson, Nucifora and Scottish Rugby’s head of women’s and girls’ strategy Gemma Fay will no doubt be busy and have a plan in place.
For now, with no international games on the horizon, let’s all get down to our local clubs and help women’s rugby at the grassroots level in Scotland grow.
- The Scotland 14 month Rugby World Cup journey has ended and so has this block of GH Media coverage. Nearly 350 pieces of content about the national team and the wider women’s game appeared on the website in that time. Keep your eyes peeled for what’s next and thanks for support.
Rachel Malcolm and a mascot are pictured during the Women’s Rugby World Cup – thanks to Ruby Adam Photography
From August 7 until September 30, GH Media will be following the Scotland World Cup journey all of the way. We will be at all of the Scotland matches down south and will be bringing you all of the interviews and news from camp as well as taking a wider look at the tournament as a whole and its impact on the women’s game. Thanks to Quirky Chocolate and other supporters for allowing this content to happen and to readers for engaging with it.