Eilidh Fleming admits that the journey her fellow prop Molly Poolman has been on inspires her.
Fleming, the 19-year-old who came through the ranks with McLaren High School and has since been with Stirling County and has also turned out for Glasgow Warriors, is an exciting talent who can play in the number one and three jerseys and is focusing on the latter just now.
And, as she prepares for the final Six Nations Women’s Summer Series match with Scotland under-20 on Thursday in Wales versus Ireland, Fleming takes a lot of heart from Poolman’s journey.
This time last year the duo were under-20 team mates playing in the Summer Series in Italy and now Poolman, the 21-year-old Watsonians and Edinburgh Rugby tighthead who started out at Howe of Fife, has four full international caps to her name and is in the extended Women’s Rugby World Cup training squad.
“Molly is very much an inspiration to me,” Fleming, who is about to go into third year at Dundee University studying interior design after the summer, said.
“I have seen how hard she has worked to get to where she is and as a young prop I am always trying to learn and put in the hard work too.
“When I first started playing rugby I was actually a second-row and it was when I started getting involved in age-grade rugby like the national under-18s and Scottish Futures that I then became a tighthead.
“Over the last few years I have worked with lots of different coaches in different environments and I’ve learned so much. I’m very grateful to them for everything.
“Every game is different and as a young prop each game is just an amazing opportunity to show what you can do.”
For now, the game on Fleming’s mind is the aforementioned Ireland one in the Summer Series at Ystrad Mynach’s Centre for Sporting Excellence after 31-17 and 52-29 defeats respectively to England and Wales.
Ireland have beaten Wales 27-10 and lost to France 41-12 so far and, ahead of the match, Fleming, who has started both games to date, said: “I think there’s definitely been lots of positives so far, taking away the results, we’ve performed really well at times and we’ve shown a lot of intent and bravery in our games.
“We just haven’t fully capitalised on all of our opportunities yet and there’s been lots of errors though and that has cost us.
“This week at training, we’ve really been focusing on getting all the details right ahead of Ireland and I believe we are a good team who can execute things well.
I think, from a front row perspective, it’s been really positive in both the games. I think we’ve definitely held our own and we want to give the team a good platform to build from against Ireland.
“We’re definitely expecting Ireland to be a very physical team, especially in mauls.
“I think things are very positive in camp at the minute and, against Ireland, we want to show the competitiveness that we know we are capable of throughout the full 80 minutes.
“We are driven to try and finish up with a win.”
Scotland supporters will be able to follow every moment of the action from the Summer Series as all matches will be streamed live on the Six Nations under-20 YouTube channel and the Scottish Rugby website.
The matchday 23 to take on Ireland on Thursday at 1pm is due to be named on Wednesday.
Scotland’s under-20 squad for the Six Nations Women’s Summer Series
Forwards: Emily Coubrough, Karis Craig, Lily Crisp, Eilidh Fleming, Poppy Fletcher, Merryn Gunderson, Megan Hyland, Kaylee McHugh, Sophie Price, Megan Riach, Charlotte Russell, Aicha Sutcliffe, Faye Sutherland, Louise Taperell, Gemma Thomson, Isobel Twigger, Holly Wilson, Aisha Zameer.
Backs: Ceitidh Ainsworth, Lisa Brown, Rianna Darroch, Rebekah Douglas, Nicole Flynn, Scarlett Haddow, Emily Love, Freya MacColl, Lucy MacRae, Holly McIntyre, Poppy Mellanby, Emily Norval.
Tickets for Scotland-England at Murrayfield in April 2026 can be purchased here.
Eilidh Fleming is pictured – thanks to Scottish Rugby
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