Scottish Women's Rugby Thread

[bsando]

Scottish Women's Rugby Thread

Six Nations Results 2024

Wales 18 - 20 Scotland (W)
Scotland 5 - 15 France (L)
Scotland vs England
Italy vs Scotland
Ireland vs Scotland

A strong start to the championship was agonisingly crippled by France despite a very strong showing at home in Edinburgh. Leading 5-3 at halftime France cruelly went ahead and denied the ladies a LBP with the clock in the red.

Next up are the favourites, England, the Red Roses. With a record breaking crowd attending this weekend, regardless of the result it will be a win for women's rugby.

Scotland vs England

14:15 Kick Off
Hive Stadium, Edinburgh (SOLD OUT)

Teams

Scotland: Rollie, Lloyd, Orr, Smith, Grant; Nelson, Mattinson; Bartlett, Skeldon, Belisle, Wassell, Malcolm (capt), Stewart, Gallagher.
Replacements: Wright, Martin, Clarke, McIntosh, McLachlan, McDonald, Thomson, McGhie.

England: Kildunne; Dow, Jones, Heard, Breach; Aitchison, Hunt; Botterman, Cokayne, Muir, Galligan, Ward, Aldcroft (capt), Kabeya, Matthews.

Replacements: Powell, Carson, Clifford, Feaunati, M Packer, L Packer, Harrison, Gregson.

[Mcsweens]

I hope we see more and more women and girls playing sport in general. The Scottish Women's team are definitely great role models.

My Mum is a former PE teacher, and she loves watching the Lionesses (and the Scottish team obviously) ; she makes the point that the Lionesses normalise sporty body shapes and more muscly and defined figures in women that are healthy and successful, which will make girls more comfortable in playing sport in the future.

Can only imagine the rugby team will do the same.

The team have some proper players too.

[broadlandboy]

Don't believe there is relegation & promotion from WXV1/2 yet. Planned for future

[bsando]

Agree mcsween! Here in inverness Highland Rugby started a women’s side and they’re doing very well. The whole highland league has been brilliant success.

[bsando]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/67431442

Couple more Scots ladies playing in England. The women’s game has the potential for massive growth over the next decade. Quite excited to see what they can do at all levels of the game.

[Poorfour]

Great to see this thread and the support for women's rugby.

Over on ComeAllWithin we've had a 6 page debate about whether women should have a professional league at all. Apparently it's not the naysayers' fault that women's rugby doesn't have bigger clouds, despite their inability to resist denigrating it at every opportunity.

Fortunately, they seem to be in the minority and support for the women's game is growing. I think it's essential that it does, as it's probably the area with the highest growth potential in rugby.

[Tramptastic]

There's a thread of thought (and its a Bill Burr joke too) that if you want womens sport to be successful you need to go support it and buy tickets to the games (Bill Burrs joke being that during covid, no-one in the WNBA got covid cause no-one buys tickets to go see them play).

I can understand this line of thought until you realise that mens rugby, whilst having a good viewership and good attendance numbers at games, is still in the red and still requires sugar daddies to fund the game.

I've enjoyed the womens games I have seen and i hope to go and see them play soon! Theres more space on the pitch for attacking rugby and skill levels are really high so the games tend to flow faster than the mens game.

[Mcsweens]

Agree mcsween! Here in inverness Highland Rugby started a women’s side and they’re doing very well. The whole highland league has been brilliant success.

My local club's (local to where I grew up) womens team is consistently more successful than the mens.

[Poorfour]

There's a thread of thought (and its a Bill Burr joke too) that if you want womens sport to be successful you need to go support it and buy tickets to the games (Bill Burrs joke being that during covid, no-one in the WNBA got covid cause no-one buys tickets to go see them play).

I can understand this line of thought until you realise that mens rugby, whilst having a good viewership and good attendance numbers at games, is still in the red and still requires sugar daddies to fund the game.

I've enjoyed the womens games I have seen and i hope to go and see them play soon! Theres more space on the pitch for attacking rugby and skill levels are really high so the games tend to flow faster than the mens game.

There are several big differences between the men's and women's games, though. Competition between countries with very different governance models (and clubs who have been prepared to break the rules) has driven men's salaries up to levels that club owners have struggled to sustain while they have also (in England at least) had to pump money into developing stadia and marketing the game.

The women's teams have several structural advantages:
- England have moved first and fastest (for once!) but have started with a low salary base. That's tough for the players in the short term, but it's enabled the game to get started and begin to build an audience without running up big debts
- The PWR teams are (mostly) linked to Prem clubs, meaning that they are sharing a lot of the infrastructure and fixed cost base. The cost in running a women's team is largel the salary cost of the players and coaches, offset by ticket, merch and TV revenue
- The unions are better co-ordinated - the WXV format is pretty good and ensures teams are regularly getting decent competition - and are jointly committed to investing in the game. The RFU is going to pull out all the stops to make RWC 2025 a success and use that to grow the game.
- The broadcast options are much better developed and there's the chance to build viewers (and revenue) faster.

While women's rugby will likely never rival women's football, I think soccer has provided a template for what can be achieved that it's much easier for women's rugby to follow than it would have been for men's rugby to follow men's soccer.

[dummy_half]

As a father of girls, I'm all for them getting opportunities in whichever sport they fancy (currently I manage my elder daughter's girls football team, while my younger daughter's bestie is the best under 9s scrum half in the area).

I actually like watching the top level women's rugby, as the level is a bit more comparable in terms of speed and skill level with what many of us have played (sort of school or lower University team level or recreational clubs) than the top men's stuff which is just a million miles an hour and intense bending of the rules...

[Poorfour]

The issue with women's rugby at the moment is that there's a huge spread of ability even within the PWR squads. In any given matchday squad you will have a mixture of international players, semi-pro players and centre of excellence kids [1].

You get some pretty wild swings in performance as a result - I've seen Quins go from 40 point wins one week to a 40 point loss the next, depending on how many of their top players they have available versus the opposition. I suspect it will even out, especially as the franchises mature and the salary cap rises over the next few years, but it's pretty uneven.

The games do have more of a balance between physicality and skill than the men's games, though, and at their best the quality can be very high. The structures that are now in place in WXV and PWR should get more of the games up to that standard over the next few years.


[1] Female players hit physical maturity earlier and come through the ranks faster at the moment - quite a few make their 1st XXIII debut at 17 or 18, and a lot of current internationals got their first caps at 19 or 20. Partly because of that, there isn't the same academy structure that the men have - a bunch of 6th form colleges run Centres of Excellence tied to the various PWR clubs, that play much of the role that the academies play.

[bsando]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/67625576

Great to see Edinburgh and Glasgow setting up women’s sides to compete in this Celtic tournament.

[bsando]

Celtic Cup Match from today

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/rugby-union/67863484

Edinburgh go down to the Wolfhounds but a couple of great tries from the ladies, the second from Cieron Bell was fantastic individual effort.

Loads of room for improvement however, a lot of sloppy play at times and Edinburgh only managed to get their last two scores in the final quarter of the match. However, the wolfhounds were stacked with Irish internationals and that cohesion showed for most of the match.

You can see the gap in quality from the likes of Orr (she is some player) and those who are not full-time pros. These fixtures will do a lot of good to help bridge that gap. A valiant effort from the team.

[bsando]

A similar result for Glasgow Warriors today. Well beaten by Gwalia Lightening but fought back valiantly in the final quarter to make it a more respectful final scoreline. Overall a bit careless with ball at times which was quite costly in that first half. Some strong performances off the bench, particularly Allie Tucker who made some strong carries and drove over the line to get Glasgow's final score of the match.

Some of the backline play was very slick at times but often Gwalia Lightening were up quick and preventing the Warrior centres from getting the ball wide. That also lead to some unforced errors and turnover ball.

The Glasgow defence was very good. They made a lot of dominant tackles and won plenty of turnover ball.

It was a great hit out against a tough Gwalia Lightening side who had great go forward ball that ultimately got them well clear on the scoreboard.

[RDW]

Anyone know what the rule is on international players? Surely the intent is for it to be a step up for players who aren't signed up by the English club teams - i.e. those on the Scottish oro contracts. But I've only see a small number of them playing?

[bsando]

Women’s 6N squad has been added above

[bsando]

This thread has been adjusted for the weekend's ficture vs the Red Roses. How do we think the ladies will get on? I would just like to them play well and cause England problems.

I am sure the sell out crowd will provide some encouragement! That is a very positive sign moving forwards.

[RDW]

Yeah it's remarkable - Rhona Lloyd commented on Instagram that her first cap was in front of 300 people as a warmup to the Scotland under 20s!

Alas there is a good chance we'll get pumped as England are waaaaay better than everyone. If we can keep it below 40 and score some good tries ourselves that would be a reasonable outcome.

[Poorfour]

England should win comfortably, because right now only the Black Ferns and possibly France can push them for 80 minutes, but Scotland have improved hugely this year and I would hope and expect that they can stay in the fight for 60 minutes

[bsando]

Yeah I think that’s the goal for Scotland on Saturday. England have won comfortably when down to 14 before and nearly did it against NZ at the World Cup. Quite remarkable. 

As Scotland catch up to them this fixture should get better every season. An number of the girls are playing in England and will be familiar with their opposition.

[RDW]

46-0 England. The 46 part isn't a disaster for Scotland but the 0 part is really disappointing. By all accounts we didn't fire a shot which is really disappointing given it was a sold out crowd (the first at the Hive) who had little to cheer for

Scotland have made huge strides in recent years but England are at least 10 years further on in their journey, and it really showed.

Annoyingly, Ireland beat Wales so we're in a real fight for the important 3rd place (and WC qualification) now

[bsando]

Sorry I didn't update the thread, busy week.

Great result away in Italy! Given the beat down Ireland received from England I'm hoping Scotland can go over there and cement third spot. It has been very encouraging to see the Scottish women step up this six nations with another win away.

Plenty for the team to work on but their dangerous runners out wide seem to be really making a difference when the attack is potentially stalling. The try from Orr was really great to see, a clever kick downfield by Nelson. All three scores came from different points of attack which shows the side can do more than just bash it up field.

Given how hard Scotland pushed France at home it has been a really encouraging 6N. I hope the team can make it three away wins next weekend, good luck to them!

[RDW]

Yes it was a strong win away to a good Italy team. Beat Ireland next and we qualify for the world cup!

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