Scottish Rugby have awarded full professional contracts to 28 members of the women’s international team, the first to be given to women by Murrayfield.
The initial contracts are for a year until November 2023. Three of the current women’s squad – Rhona Lloyd, Lisa Thomson and the Dundee-born full-back/wing Shona Campbell – have instead accepted deals with the GB Sevens squad playing in the HSBC World Sevens Series.
Discussions are ongoing as to their availability for this spring’s TikTok Women’s Six Nations.
However the move by Murrayfield is a highly significant one, and central to their Women and Girls strategy announced earlier this year.
New deals for World Cup players
Scottish Rugby announces professional contracts for 28 players, as part of its continued investment into the women’s game.
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— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) December 15, 2022
The Scottish Women’s qualified for the Rugby World Cup for the first time in a decade this year. Members of the enlarged squad had their wages paid for by Murrayfield in the months before the tournament in New Zealand.
Previously the Scots international players had been awarded “support packages” by the governing body.
The first pro contracts will initially “focus on the skills and physical development of each individual player”. It’s understood the average value of the year-long contracts is around £25,000.
Players will remain with their existing clubs, but contracts will allow for greater opportunity for off-field performance activities such as analysis and recovery.
‘Incredibly exciting’
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Scotland captain Rachel Malcolm, who is a PhD and a university lecturer in Nottingham, said it was “a historic and incredibly exciting day”.
“The opportunity to go professional is not one I thought I would have within my career,” she said. “As a playing group we are determined to use this opportunity to take Scotland Women to a new level.”
Scottish Rugby’s Director of High Performance, Jim Mallinder, said: “This is a landmark moment for the women’s performance programme. These contracts are a significant first step in a long-term journey towards professionalising the women’s game.
“Today’s announcement will provide a crucial boost ahead of the TikTok Women’s Six Nations championshi. With the launch of the new global women’s competition, WXV, we aim to ensure that we can compete and challenge the top teams on the world stage.
“The next step will look at how we can create a sustainable and competitive playing environment in Scotland. We will build our high-performance pathways to support our future internationalists and ensure new talent is identified and developed.”
Bryan Easson, the current Scotland women head coach, said he was delighted for the players who had agreed contracts.
“The women’s game and calendar is continuously evolving and growing,” he said. “We now have an annual programme that we can plan and prepare for properly.
“The ability for players to focus on rugby each week, while having sufficient enough time for recovery and analysis, is a real positive for us.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what we can achieve going forward.”
England and France have fully professional set-ups for women’s rugby. Ireland awarded 29 contracts ranging between €15,000 and €25,000 in October, while Wales contracted 17 players during the second half of 2022.