Scotland playmaker Meryl Smith will be making her return to competitive rugby this weekend for Bristol Bears after 16 months out injured.
It has been a tough time for the 24-year-old talent as she missed the whole of the PWR campaign in 2024/25, last year’s Six Nations and the Rugby World Cup last summer.
She has also been absent the start of this year’s league campaign, but now she is back having been named at 12 for the Bears PWR home game with Sale Sharks on Sunday.
Smith, who has 22 international caps to her name, suffered an ACL injury against Australia at WXV 2 in South Africa in October 2024.
In a recent interview she said: ““It was a mad game to come into off the bench with so much going on and I made a tackle a few minutes after coming on and my right knee pretty much gave way.
“I tried to play on, I think I played maybe 10 minutes after that because it felt ok and we were still chasing the win. I thought I could play on, I thought I was fit enough to keep going and I did my best but, looking back on it now, I think there was definitely something not right with my knee.
“Once we got home from South Africa, the knee was quite swollen for a couple of weeks
“However, initially the physios with Bristol and Scotland we all thought that it wasn’t anything too major and, in my head at least, I was hoping to be back playing in the PWR quite soon.
“I had my boots in my bag and everything, I was ready to go. Maybe that was a bit of wishful thinking on my part as realistically there was always going to be some sort of period out to get the injury right, but it came as a shock that I’d done my ACL.
“I had a scan and the injury wasn’t showing the usual signs of an ACL – I think it was an unusual mechanism that I had torn it in – so when it was confirmed that it was an ACL it did take me some time to process everything.
“I think with a lot of ACL injuries you can tell almost immediately that that’s what’s happened and I think because that wasn’t the case with mine I was perhaps denial and I was like ‘oh it’s completely fine, my knee will be fine’, but then it began to sink in and I had to get my head around it.”
Also in action for eighth placed Bristol on Sunday alongside Smith as the PWR resumes after a break will be Scotland centre Emma Orr and second-row Hollie Cunningham while Lana Skeldon and Elliann Clarke are on the bench, the former after injury.
Sale are seventh in the nine-team standings and Shona Campbell, Evie Wills and Rhona Lloyd are in their backline with Leah Bartlett and Eva Donaldson on the bench.
Fourth placed Exeter Chiefs are taking on Leicester, in ninth, on Sunday with Scotland cap Eilidh Sinclair at full-back for the Chiefs and Jenny Maxwell captaining the visitors from nine.
Second placed Gloucester Hartpury meet fifth placed Loughborough Lightning on Sunday and Lucia Scott is at full-back for Lightning with Helen Nelson at 10 and Anne Young at loosehead prop. Recently internationally retired Scotland cap Christine Belisle and Becky Boyd are on the bench.
- The PWR action for the weekend begins on Friday evening when sixth placed Trailfinders Women, who have Scotland skipper Rachel Malcolm at number six, host third placed Harlequins. ‘Quins have Fi McIntosh in the second-row and Jade Konkel skippering from No.8.
Meryl Smith is pictured – thanks to Bristol Bears