Scotland outlines plan for women's rugby after World Cup uncertainty
NEWS: Scottish Rugby has shown its commitment to the women’s game by confirming its annual contracting model for the 2025/26 season, which sees an increase in contracted players from the previous year and up to 50 having access to high-performance environments.
Maintaining a structure consistent with the period before the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 the model will continue to provide financial support for selected players to train, play and recover within their local environment – the PWR in England, the Elite leagues in France or Celtic Challenge in Scotland.
For the 2025/26 season, Scottish Rugby has 35 contracts in place; 17 players with full contracts will be supported in their development within the PWR and Elite league structures; 11 players with full contracts and seven players with development contracts will be based in Scotland. A further 15 emerging players will have day to day access to the high-performance programme. In 2024/25 32 players were supported.
Scottish Rugby remains fully committed to developing the women’s game domestically. Over time, the goal is to create sustainable high-performance environments where more players can base themselves in Scotland, represent Scottish teams, and continue to compete at the highest level internationally.
The players based in Scotland will be supported through a new centralised programme at Oriam High Performance Centre which started working with players earlier this month, who will represent Edinburgh Rugby or Glasgow Warriors in the Celtic Challenge.
Additional players for the Celtic Challenge season will be selected from the Arnold Clark Premiership League, BUCS Super League and the Scottish Qualified Programme providing a pathway for players with potential to progress within the Scottish game.
The selection model for Scotland playing in the Guinness Six Nations and Global WXV competitions also remains the same in that players can be selected regardless of their contract status, with all selected players remunerated for their time and appearances through the separate National Team Agreement.
Speaking on the increased programme, Scottish Rugby CEO, Alex Williamson said: “The performances of Scotland Women at the Women’s Rugby World Cup have undoubtedly given us a strong platform to move into the next phase of our High-Performance programme.
“Our commitment to the women’s game remains and our focus now moves to qualifying for, and competing in, Rugby World Cup 2029. We have increased the number of players supported directly by Scottish Rugby for the coming season and already started the centralised training programme at Oriam in recent weeks.
“Our intention is to build the women’s game in Scotland and today’s contracting commitment is the next step in that important process.”
Scottish Rugby’s Performance Director, David Nucifora, added: “High Performance sport doesn’t stand still and we intentionally wanted to be ready to start the next Rugby World Cup cycle at the earliest appropriate moment.
“We are building a new high-performance environment at Oriam and the women’s programme will directly benefit from the expertise we have added around nutrition, S&C, and wider athlete support.
“We have some key appointments to still make but I’m confident the full programme will be operating within the timescales we planned and will strengthen the opportunities available to players in Scotland.”
