Scottish Rugby has confirmed its annual contracting model for the 2025/26 season for the women’s game.
The governing body says it is continuing its commitment to the women’s game by confirming an increase in contracted players from the previous year with up to 50 having access to high performance environments.
A press release said: “Maintaining a structure consistent with the period before the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025, the model will continue to provide financial support for selected players to train, play and recover within their local environment – the PWR in England, the Elite leagues in France or Celtic Challenge in Scotland.
“For the 2025/26 season, Scottish Rugby has 35 contracts in place; 17 players with full contracts will be supported in their development within the PWR and Elite league structures; 11 players with full contracts and seven players with development contracts will be based in Scotland.
“A further 15 emerging players will have day to day access to the high-performance programme. In 2024/25 32 players were supported
“Scottish Rugby remains fully committed to developing the women’s game domestically. Over time, the goal is to create sustainable high-performance environments where more players can base themselves in Scotland, represent Scottish teams, and continue to compete at the highest level internationally.
“The players based in Scotland will be supported through a new centralised programme at Oriam High Performance Centre which started working with players earlier this month, who will represent Edinburgh Rugby or Glasgow Warriors in the Celtic Challenge.
“Additional players for the Celtic Challenge season will be selected from the Arnold Clark Women’s Premiership, BUCS Super League and the Scottish Qualified Programme providing a pathway for players with potential to progress within the Scottish game.
“The selection model for Scotland playing in the Guinness Women’s Six Nations and Global WXV competitions also remains the same in that players can be selected regardless of their contract status, with all selected players remunerated for their time and appearances through the separate National Team Agreement.”
- Scottish Rugby say that this annual contracting model for the 2025/26 campaign is a part of an increase of approximately 20 percent on the spend from the previous year on the women’s game.
Around £5m for the financial year is being put into it and this encompasses costs for contracted players, coaches and support staff across the national team, performance pathways and other programmes as well as the costs of participation in the Celtic Challenge competition.
The centralised programme at Oriam High Performance Centre is now underway – thanks to Scottish Rugby
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.