The Scotland women's national rugby union team represents Scotland in women's international

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

and is governed by the

Scottish Rugby Union The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU; gd, Aonadh Rugbaidh na h-Alba) is the governing body of rugby union in Scotland. Styled as Scottish Rugby, it is the second oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873. The SRU oversees the national league s ...

. The team competes in the annual Women's Six National Championship and has competed in five of the Women's Rugby World Cups since their hosted debut in 1994. The Nation plays an important role in the rugby world stage.

History

Scotland Women's first official test match was played against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

Raeburn Place Raeburn Place is the main street of the suburb of Stockbridge, Edinburgh, Scotland, and the name of the playing fields there. Rugby The first ever international rugby football game was played on the playing fields at Raeburn Place on 27 Ma ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

on 14 February 1993, ending in a 10 - 0 win to the hosts. Leading from the front, first Scotland captain Sandra Colamartino was the scorer of both tries. In April of the following year, Scotland stepped in as alternate host of the

1994 Women's Rugby World Cup The 1994 Women's Rugby World Cup was the second world cup for women. It was originally scheduled to be held in Amsterdam, Netherlands (April 10–24) but was cancelled only weeks before. However, a replacement competition was organised around the ...

, finishing fifth, the team's best appearance to date. Since then, the Women's team have competed in the

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

and

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro votes to declare independence from Serbia; The 2006 ...

and

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

iterations of the tournament. The early streak of success peaked on 21 March 1998, as a 8–5 win over England in their final match of the Home Nations Championship marked the achievement of a Grand Slam for Scotland. The

Scottish Women's Rugby Union The Scottish Women's Rugby Union (SWRU) was the national governing body for women's rugby union in Scotland. It was responsible for the governance of women's rugby union within Scotland. Its role was all encompassing. It went from youth recruitment, ...

(SWRU) was the national

governing body A governing body is a group of people that has the authority to exercise governance over an organization or political entity. The most formal is a government, a body whose sole responsibility and authority is to make binding decisions in a taken ...

for

women's rugby union Women's rugby union is a full contact team sport based on running with the ball in hand. The same laws are used in men's rugby union with the same sized pitch and same equipment. Rugby was originally a men's sport, and women's rugby has become p ...

in Scotland. It was responsible for the governance of women's rugby union within Scotland. Its role was all-encompassing. It went from youth recruitment, through administrating all senior based (aged 16+) competition, through to the performance and management of the Scotland women's national rugby union team. At its AGM in June 2009, the SWRU voted unanimously in favour of amalgamating the

and the SWRU to form an integrated national governing body rugby in Scotland.

Thistle and the anthem

The

thistle Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterised by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles can also occur all over the planton the stem and on the flat parts of the leaves ...

is the

national flower In a number of countries, plants have been chosen as symbols to represent specific geographic areas. Some countries have a country-wide floral emblem; others in addition have symbols representing subdivisions. Different processes have been used to ...

, and also the symbol of the Scotland national rugby union team. According to legend the "guardian thistle" has played its part in the defence of Scotland against a night attack by Norwegian Vikings, one of whom let out a yell of pain when he stepped barefoot on a thistle, alerting the Scottish defenders. The Latin ''

Nemo me impune lacessit ''Nemo me impune lacessit'' (''No one provokes me with impunity'') () was the Latin motto of the Royal Stuart dynasty of Scotland from at least the reign of James VI when it appeared on the reverse side of merk coins minted in 1578 and 1580. ...

'' ("No-one provokes me with impunity!" in English) is the motto of Scotland's premier chivalric order, the

Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle is an order of chivalry associated with Scotland. The current version of the Order was founded in 1687 by King James VII of Scotland, who asserted that he was reviving an earlier Order. The ...

. " Flower of Scotland" has been used since 1990 as Scotland's unofficial national anthem. It was written by Roy Williamson of

The Corries The Corries were a Scottish folk group that emerged from the Scottish folk revival of the early 1960s. The group was a trio from their formation until 1966 when founder Bill Smith left the band but Roy Williamson and Ronnie Browne continued ...

in 1967, and adopted by the SRU to replace "

God Save the Queen "God Save the King" is the national and/or royal anthem of the United Kingdom, most of the Commonwealth realms, their territories, and the British Crown Dependencies. The author of the tune is unknown and it may originate in plainchant, bu ...

Strip

Scotland have traditionally worn navy blue jerseys, white shorts and blue socks. On the occasion that Scotland is the home side and the opposing team normally wears dark colours, Scotland will use its change strip. Traditionally this is a white jersey with navy blue shorts and socks. During a sponsorship deal, purple was introduced to the traditional blue jersey. This was a significant departure from the traditional colours of blue and white, although purple is inspired from the

flower.

Results summary

Overall

''(Full internationals only)''
''Correct as of 27 November 2016''

World Cup

Players

Current squad

Scotland named their final 32-player squad on the 15 September 2022, for the

2021 Rugby World Cup The 2021 Rugby World Cup was the ninth staging of the women's Rugby World Cup, as organised by World Rugby. It was held from 8 October to 12 November 2022 in Auckland and Whangārei, New Zealand. It was originally scheduled to be held in 2021, ...

Notable internationalists

* Paula Chalmers, Scrum Half, named in World Cup Star X

* Donna Kennedy, Number 8, most capped Scottish internationalist * Jade Konkel, Number 8, first full-time professional Scottish internationalis

References

External links

* {{national sports teams of Scotland Scotland national rugby union team European national women's rugby union teams Women's national rugby union teams National