MURRAYFIELD AWAITS – Scotland’s new era at Six Nations

Scotland captain Rachel Malcolm and rising star Fran McGhie – who both play for Trailfinders – look ahead to what is a new era for Scottish rugby, all kicking off at the Six Nations. Gethin Thurlow is all ears.

With all the insight and experience that comes up with having the most caps as Scotland captain, flanker Rachel Malcolm (left) offers a real look into the Scottish side as they prepare for what is hopefully a game-changing tournament.

Meanwhile, winger Fran McGhie (right) is one of the most exciting prospects in rugby at the moment, and on return from injury will be one to bring those passionate fans out of their seats, as Murrayfield hosts their clash with the World Champion Red Roses.

After years of fighting towards the bottom end of the table, buoyed by a World Cup quarter-final appearance, a massive coaching overhaul and hopefully a groundbreaking level of support for women’s sport in Scotland, the possibilities are endless for this side – and that makes the journey all the more exciting to follow.

As someone who’s been involved with the game for such a long time, how excited are you for this Six Nations, given the momentum women’s rugby has at the moment?

Rachel Malcolm: I think it’s a really exciting year for the Six Nations for a couple of different reasons. Off the back of the World Cup, the women’s game is really in the spotlight and we’ve really galvanised a fanbase in Scotland and across the world.

To have that kind of momentum going into a tournament like the Six Nations is really cool and the principal stadiums hosting games are a statement to that.

On the other hand, it is the year after a World Cup and all the teams are going to be in rebuild phases with new coaches and players across a number of the teams – especially ours.

You can sometimes predict the Six Nations, but I think a year after World Cup is a really exciting time and I think particularly for Scotland, it’ll be a new era and a different style of play. It’s a cool time to be involved in women’s rugby.

What does the Six Nations mean to you?

Fran McGhie (above left for Trailfinders, right for Scotland): Growing up the Six Nations was probably the only rugby tournament I ever watched. I wasn’t typically that interested, but when the Six Nations came around it always was exciting. To get the chance to play in it as well; I think everybody else talks about how the Six Nations is a different tournament. 

Although the World Cup last year was great, it’s an entirely different type of tournament and everybody looks forward to when the Six Nations comes around, just being in that environment again. It does mean a lot to play in a pretty iconic tournament, as everyone that’s involved in rugby can tell you.

Malcolm: Like Fran said, I remember watching it growing up and those key moments. It is also a tournament that we can rely on having every single year, unlike the World Cup.

It’s just an exciting time, coming as winter blues are passing and everyone’s getting into spring and wanting to be outside watching sport again.

How do you reflect on the World Cup and what do you think Scotland chances are in the Six Nations?

Malcolm: I think from us, as soon as we saw our group for that World Cup, getting out the group stages was always the aim. With Canada in our pool, we always knew it was going to be a tough ask to beat them. But, if we wanted to probably progress beyond the quarterfinals, that was the game that we had to do it in.

We obviously didn’t achieve that, which was disappointing, but also is probably a fair statement of where we’re both at as teams. Drawing England in a quarter-final probably isn’t what we would have wanted, but I think our performances in that World Cup and what we achieved in terms of the history of this game in Scotland was really cool.

Going into this Six Nations I don’t think we’ll put a number on it. We have a whole new culture, new team, we have players who Fran and I don’t even really know coming in through the pathway. So this will definitely be a tournament for getting people experience, bringing young players through and establishing what is our playing style under this new coaching team.

For us, success probably is more around the performances. We have two tough home games against England and France, so those will be very much about trying to compete, whereas our three away games will be grudge battles that we will be looking to go and win.

One of those home games is the England fixture at Murrayfield. There’s been over 19,000 tickets sold for that match already, how much are you looking forward to that occasion and hopefully developing the fanbase in Scotland?

McGhie: It’s a great occasion after the World Cup, and being against England who had the World Cup at home, we’ve got to jump on the bandwagon of all the support and just get everybody up here to Scotland as well.

It’ll be a great day to be a part of, hopefully we can sell some more tickets in the next month.

There was obviously a World Cup in between, but looking back at the last Six Nations, how do you think the team has progressed from then to now?

Malcolm (above left and right for Trailfinders, centre at the Six Nations launch with Scotland head coach Sione Fukofuka): It is probably our conversion. At the World Cup you saw us scoring more tries and creating more opportunities than we have done in the last few Six Nations. We managed to get the ball to people like Fran and our exciting back three more than we traditionally have. That is why we’re starting to open teams up a little bit more.

Moving forward, our game plan will be around creating those great moments as much as possible. Our defence is something that’s always been a stronghold. So with the changing of the guard in terms of coaching staff, maintaining that defensive identity while still creating those cool attacking opportunities and getting our star players on the ball is something we want to continue going into this year.

McGhie: I think our attack has got so much better over the last few seasons, and especially from last Six Nations. I think we proved that in the World Cup.

As Rachel says, our defence is one of our strong suits so we’re just looking to keep going with that; with the new defence and attack coaches it’s going to be exciting to see what we can build on.

What young players could be breaking into the Scotland team this tournament?

McGhie: Molly Poolman. She came to the World Cup with us already, but I think she’s a fantastic player. Although she is still young, she brings so much to the team off the pitch as well as on it.

We’ve got some exciting names coming through as well, like Emily Love. She puts her heart and soul into training and the Celtic challenge, so if she gets the opportunity I think she’ll be great.

Who do you think will be your most challenging opponents?

Malcolm: I think the most challenging opponents will be England. It’s always going to be England in this era of the game. They are the world champions for a reason and in the Six Nations they’ve won the last however many (seven). I’ve no doubt it’ll be a tough match against those guys.

Looking at your club team – Trailfinders, who are some teammates across other nations that you’re looking forward to facing?

Malcolm: Obviously we’ve got the likes of Carys Cox for Wales (right) and Meg Jones at England (left) who are both here at Trailfinders. They’re both great personalities and good fun, so I’m sure we’ll have a little bit of banter on the pitch with them.

I’m definitely not looking forward to Abi Burton running into me and seeing her opposite. It’s cool to have so many people here at Trailfinders who we can learn from. Those interactions are a big part of why we all play the game, it’s really cool to go into internationals and come up against so many club teammates.

McGhie: I think honestly the worst person to play against is Meg. She’s so cheeky, she does wind you up on the pitch. A lot of the time we are thankful that she’s on our team, she’s a threat.

Which Scottish players across the PWR are you looking forward to linking up with at the Six Nations?

McGhie: I’m going to start with Lucia Scott. I think she’s been great for Loughborough Lightning and I’m really looking forward to seeing what she can do. She unfortunately missed out on the World Cup, and I think she’s got some points to prove, so I think she’ll be really exciting.

Malcolm: I think there’s a ton of obvious ones like Evie Gallagher (unfortunately now injured), who’s just making turnovers for fun, Helen Nelson (below) at 10 too tearing things up at Lightning.

But for me, someone that’s been out for a really long time and has come back in and seems to be thriving in her environment at Bristol is Meryl Smith.

She has that playmaker ability and exciting style of play, something that I think our attack will definitely benefit from. So I’m excited to see her come back and stamp her mark back on the Scottish squad.

Photos: Trailfinders, Six Nations Rugby, Helen M Jerome