The women’s Arnold Clark Premiership season begins on Saturday and, after finishing between first and fourth last year, Stirling County, Watsonians, Corstorphine Cougars and Heriot’s, are all looking forward to 2026/27.
In recent years the eight-team division has run up until a final in December, but with the Sarah Beaney Cup – from October 17 – running alongside the top flight this term, the final will not be until March.
There will be plenty of twists and turns before then and the initial goal for all the teams involved is to make it into the top four by the time stage one of the campaign comes to an end in November.
Stirling County won the title last season and have been crowned champions three out of the last four times, but there are a number of teams who will look to challenge them this time around while, at the other end, teams will want to avoid eighth place and the drop to the new National League.
County’s new captain is Claudia McLaren and she said: “The club has high standards when it comes to girls’ and women’s rugby and we want to keep those standards up this year.
“It is an honour for me to be named captain and I’ll aim to lead by example.
“We have a strong forward pack so maintaining that to set a good platform for the backs is going to be key.
“We may lose a few players to representative rugby, but the great thing about County is that there is a great youth set up and the talent coming through from there is exciting.
“We also have a lot of players who were around the squad last year who will be after more game time this year and the experienced [Scotland cap] Rachel Shankland is back at the club.”
Watsonians finished second last year and won the Sarah Beaney Cup and their skipper Rachel Law said: “Coming off the back of a cup win last year, we are super excited.
“We’ve had a great pre-season and we obviously fell just short to a fantastic Stirling team in the Premiership final last December so we’re looking to go one better this time if we can.
“We’ve got lots of new players coming into the squad and we’re really pushing to get a twos team out more regularly this year.
“We’ve had great numbers down to training which has been fantastic and now we just want to get going with matches.
“Our biggest supporter, Stewart Robertson, passed away recently and we hope we can do his memory proud this season.”
Corstorphine Cougars, the 2024/25 champions, were third last year and captain Zoe Turner said: ““I think we are seeing this season as a bit of a fresh start.
“We know what we are capable of on our day and with some new coaches coming in and some new players joining the squad there is a lot of excitement around.
“We are looking to get off to a solid start and then build from there.
“There have also been recent changes made at Union Park in terms of facilities and we always enjoy playing at home and everyone is keen to get into games now.”
Heriot’s were fourth in 2026/27 and their captain Pearl Kellie said: “There is a good feeling around the club just now.
“Last season gives us a good platform to build from as we know there is more to come with Nashy [former Scotland cap Muzambe] heading things up. We love working with her.
“Heading into the season, everybody was exactly on the same page and, from my perspective as a captain, that’s really exciting.
“Pre-season has involved a lot of learning and everyone wants to get better collectively which is great to be a part of.”
The fixtures are here.
Representatives of these four clubs are pictured – thanks to Scottish Rugby
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