When Scotland women defeated Fiji 59-15 at Hive Stadium in September 2024 the national team rose to a record high of number five in the world.
It was Scotland’s 10th win in 13 Test matches stretching back to April 2023 and within that run there was also a spell of a record seven wins in a row which included clinching the 2023 WXV 2 title in South Africa.
After the victory over Fiji in what was a warm up Test for the WXV 2 title defence in South Africa, victories followed against Italy and Japan in Cape Town and only a 31-22 defeat in a harum-scarum contest against Australia saw the chance of back-to-back titles distinguished. The performances at WXV 2 did make sure of a place in a second Rugby World Cup in a row though.
At that time the coaching set up was settled with head coach Bryan Easson having been in post since late 2020, defence coach Tyrone Holmes having been in post for a number of years, attack coach Matt Banahan having been in post since the summer of 2023 and forwards coach Fraser Brown having been in post since the summer of 2024.
It seemed like Scotland were in a great position to really kick on from where they were and, indeed, after the Fiji game Banahan said “there is no reason” why the national team cannot push up to three or even two in the world rankings in the next few years.
Things change quickly in life, however, and in sport they change even quicker and very rarely stay the same.
As we sit here now in August 2026 ahead of the WXV Global Series fixtures coming up over the next couple of months, Scotland are seventh in the world and none of the four coaches who were in place as things headed into 2025 are still involved.
In fact, in the cases of Brown and Banahan, they were away before the World Cup in August and September last year, Brown leaving straight after the Women’s Six Nations to take up a coaching role at Ealing Trailfinders and Banahan leaving in June.
Ross Miller and Steve Shingler came into their roles for the World Cup and did a good job in the short-term as Scotland did a good job to reach the quarter-finals, but in an ideal world it would have been good to have had Brown and Banahan at the big dance for consistency.
And, of course, just a month before the World Cup, it was announced that Easson would be leaving his post after the showpiece event in England.
Now things do not stay the same forever and sometimes change is needed, but the timing of the announcement seemed strange and at the time the then Scottish Rugby CEO Alex Williamson said “Bryan will take the Scotland squad to the World Cup in August as a fitting swansong to his many achievements as the coach of the national team”.
A swansong gives the impression that someone is bowing out into retirement, but Easson was only 51 at the time and, one could imagine, had plenty more energy left in the tank to take women’s rugby in this country forward. Williamson, performance director David Nucifora and others clearly had other ideas. It did come across as Easson’s decision when announced, but there has been much discussion in Scottish women’s rugby circles about that since then.
The next time she spoke to the media after the Easson news, Scotland skipper Rachel Malcolm said the timing of the announcement was “upsetting” for the players and that , with their own contract negotiations with the governing body going on in the background with the World Cup just around the corner, the players had been put in an “unfair position” by a “very disruptive” build up.
After all of that, Scotland’s players and coaching staff came together during the World Cup to put in some excellent performances before being knocked out of the tournament by eventual winners England in the last eight in Bristol.
There was some emotional interviews given by coaches and players post-match that day at Ashton Gate and with Easson leaving and the likes of Jade Konkel, Lisa Cockburn and Caity Mattinson retiring it very much felt like the end of an era.
Everyone dusted themselves down and a brave new era running through to the World Cup in Australia in 2029 looked set to begin under new head coach Sione Fukofuka at the start of this year.
With Gemma Fay in post at Scottish Rugby as managing director of women’s rugby and Andy Rhys Jones coming in from Harlequins as the head of women’s performance and pathways, senior assistant coach Ioan Cunningham and forwards coach Dave Butcher brought in to work with Fukofuka and plans afoot to bring back more international players north of the border to play their club rugby for Edinburgh Rugby and Glasgow Warriors there were a lot of big plans being made.
The injury-hit Six Nations was a tough one for Scotland with just one win registered and, this summer after the new contracting model was announced, Fukuoka left his role to return to Australia due to family and personal reasons.
Nobody would begrudge anyone for doing that – family must always come first – but suddenly a four year vision for the national team and the wider women’s game in Scotland being headed up by him had hit the buffers after just eight months.
Fukuoka then being appointed Australia women’s head coach just eight days later then certainly left a bitter taste in the mouth, there is no doubt about that.
And if the whole saga had left observers confused, spare a thought for how the players must be feeling.
So, with the Scotland squad now in week two of training ahead of some really tricky – but exciting – fixtures coming up where are things now?
Well, Fukuoka and Cunningham – he left “to pursue new opportunities” – are away and Claire Cruikshank, who joined the Scotland coaching team during the Six Nations, is now national academy manager for the women’s game.
Former Scotland men’s age-grade cap Butcher is the interim head coach and the man who helped Canada reach the World Cup final last year is in charge of the forwards.
Chris Laidlaw (defence), Tom Luke (attack) and Robbie Fergusson (skill development) will be assisting him over the coming weeks and while off field issues may have dominated once again in Scottish women’s rugby this summer, it is now imperative that everyone gets behind that trio, Butcher, captain Rachel Malcolm and the players.
They deserve and need that support while the four year journey building to the next World Cup that began a few months ago now has to be scaled back somewhat given all the changes – simply the next couple of months must be the mini-journey to be focused on for now.
The upcoming home Vodafone Scotland WXV Series campaign – part of the wider WXV Global Series presented by Mitsubishi Electric featuring the top sides in the world – begins for Scotland against the 2025 Rugby World Cup runners-up Canada on September 12 at Hive Stadium before welcoming New Zealand to these shores the following weekend on September 19 and then hosting Australia on September 26.
Scotland’s away WXV Global Series fixtures will take place against Australia on October 17 and October 23.
Dave Butcher and Rachel Malcolm are pictured – thanks to Peter Watt Photography
It is shaping up to be an exciting 2026/27 season for women’s rugby in Scotland and GH Media will be covering it in detail – if any companies are keen to support this content please send an email to gary@gh-media.co.uk