Celtic Challenge: 102-0 defeat for Edinburgh brings curtain down on miserable campaign
Yesterday at 04:56 PM
EDINBURGH suffered a painful and demoralising 102-0 defeat at the hands of Wolfhounds in the final round of their Celtic Challenge campaign in Dublin on Saturday, and although Glasgow Warriors produced a more spirited performance when going down 34-22 away to Brython Thunder on Sunday, it was not enough to prevent the two Scottish sides from ending up stranded second-bottom and bottom of the table.
Edinburgh managed two wins over the course of the campaign, against Glasgow Warriors on the opening weekend and then against Brython Thunder in their second match (both games at Hive Stadium), but since then have slumped to eight straight defeats by an average margin of 27.75 points per game, to finish fifth out of six teams in the competition.
Warriors, meanwhile, beat Edinburgh at Scotstoun in mid-February, and were awarded 0-0 draw when it was decided not to reschedule their game against Clovers which was initially postponed due to Storm Éowyn. Their other eight matches were all lost by an average of 23.625 points per match, leaving them propping up the league.
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When Claire Cruikshank and Lindsey Smith were appointed as full-time head coaches of Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors, respectively, ahead of this campaign, it pointed towards a desire by Scottish Rugby to drive standards and create a professionalised environment which can support the international team, but that has patently not materialised. There is no scenario where a loss by over 100 points can be considered as having any developmental value. This result is also catastrophically bad news for women’s rugby in Scotland as a brand hoping to attract new players and supporters.
In fairness to Cruikshank and Smith, they are being asked to field consistently competitive teams in very challenging circumstances. Scottish Rugby’s 32 contracted professionals all play club rugby in England or France, and although several were released on occasion to Glasgow and Edinburgh last season, this time round such opportunities to draw on their experience were far fewer due to a scheduling clash with England’s PWR.
Of the 40 women named by Ireland head coach Scott Bemand for the forthcoming Six Nations, 33 played in the Celtic Challenge. By contrast, only seven of the 34 players named by Bryan Easson in his Scotland training squad have played for Edinburgh or Glasgow over the last three months, with Lucia Scott of Gloucester-Hartpury the only English-based player being released to do so.
Five of the six solely Scottish-based players in the Scotland squad are uncapped – Adelle Ferrie, Aila Ronald, Molly Poolman, Rhea Clarke and Hannah Walker – while eight-times capped Alex Stewart was a breakthrough star during last season’s Celtic Challenge, having come to prominence playing club rugby with Corstorphine Cougars.
In the circumstances, you wonder whether Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors in the Celtic Challenge is a genuine step-up to the rugby available at Scotland’s top clubs such as Cougars, Stirling County and Watsonians; although that tier of the game is also riddled with problems as the huge gap between the top and bottom halves of the Arnold Clark Women’s Premiership this season highlights.
A debrief of the campaign will no doubt be carried out by Scottish Rugby, and conclusions will be drawn around why the nation’s two representatives in the tournament are so far off the pace of their rivals from Ireland and Wales. The outcomes of this exercise must be made public, alongside the details of a clear plan as to how to improve the Celtic Challenge programme – if it survives – going forward.
David Nucifora – Scottish Rugby’s fairly new performance director – acknowledged in his media briefing in December that the women’s game is part of his remit, although where he will fit that in around his commitments to sorting out the male player pathway and various other issues in the men’s game, as well as his gig working with the British and Irish Lions in his native Australia this summer, remains to be seen.
Gemma Fay was recruited by Murrayfield as Head of Girls/Women’s Performance Rugby in January 2018, and that role became Head of Women & Girls Strategy in October 2021. The former Scotland goalkeeper is also one of three Scottish representatives on World Rugby’s Council and a regular football pundit for the BBC, but has been conspicuously low-key when it comes to publicly articulating what the current Scottish Rugby strategy for the women’s game running to the end of the 2025-26 season looks like and how it is progressing.
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