Analysis: Why did neither Scottish side make 2025/26 Celtic Challenge play-offs?

The Celtic Challenge was very aptly named this year for the Scottish teams involved because it was a real challenge for them.

The play-off semi-finals and final of the six-team tournament featuring Irish and Welsh teams are still to come, but, a month out from the start of the Guinness Women’s Six Nations, Scottish interest in the competition is already over.

The final will be at Hive Stadium in Edinburgh on March 28th, but neither Edinburgh Rugby or Glasgow Warriors will be there after mustering up just two wins apiece from 10 during the regular season phase.

Edinburgh ended up bottom of the standings on 12 points and, with their wins being a double over Glasgow, lost all eight games they had versus Irish and Welsh opponents.

Glasgow finished fifth on 17 points with their wins coming against Brython Thunder and Gwalia Lightning on the road.

So, should Scottish supporters have expected more from the country’s two representatives and why were there struggles?

The first thing to say off the bat is that the Irish and Welsh teams had more home-based international players available to them during the regular season.

Of the 28 fully supported Scottish Rugby players this season, just 11 are based in Scotland and, of those, full internationals Alex Stewart (University of Edinburgh), Adelle Ferrie (Corstorphine Cougars), Molly Poolman (Watsonians), Aila Ronald (University of Edinburgh) Hannah Ramsay (Watsonians) and the uncapped pairing of Hannah Walker (University of Edinburgh) and Merryn Gunderson (Corstorphine Cougars) were available to Edinburgh during the Celtic Challenge run.

Emily Norval (Stirling County), Holland Bogan (Stirling County), Emily Coubrough (University of Edinburgh) and Nicole Flynn (University of Edinburgh) from that batch of 11 were available to Glasgow during the Celtic Challenge run and they are all uncapped.

The other 17 fully supported Scottish Rugby players play in the PWR and in France and although in previous years sometimes top-end players have been released to get game time in the Celtic Challenge, this was not possible this time around because the ones from that group have either been playing regularly for their parent clubs or have been injured.

Players such as Rachel Philipps (Sale Sharks) and Gemma Bell (Gloucester Hartpury) have been available fairly regularly to Edinburgh and Glasgow respectively of late while Beth Blacklock (Saracens) played some games for the Warriors at the start of the campaign, but it is fair to say that neither side has had a core of seasoned internationals leading them in 2025/26 season.

Below the 28 fully supported Scottish Rugby players this season there are seven players on ‘development support’ and, of that group, Talei Tawake (Watsonians) was available to Edinburgh in the Celtic Challenge and Poppy Mellanby (University of Edinburgh), Poppy Fletcher (University of Edinburgh), Megan Hyland (Heriot’s Rugby), Ceitidh Ainsworth (Stirling County), Imogen Spence (University of Edinburgh) and Sky Phimister (Stirling County) were available to Glasgow.

Certainly, some in that batch of young players took their chance to impress during the tournament and that was one plus of the last few months.

In terms of Edinburgh, this year has to be viewed as a big disappointment.

After the trial year of the Celtic Challenge in 2022/23 when the Scottish Thistles team finished second in a three-team event, Edinburgh finished second in their inaugural year in 2023/24 when they won four, drew two and lost one of seven games.

In 2024/25, they finished fifth with two wins from 10 and that ended with a 102-0 defeat to champions Wolfhounds.

So, they won the same number of games this term as they did last, but, with the top four play-offs coming into play, there was real hope at the start of the campaign that they could secure a place in the final stages.

In all honesty they were never really in the mix for the top four and, given the number of young players they had in the squad who are keen to try and push on for international honours in the next couple of years, that was a disappointment.

They were hit by injury to their first-choice tighthead prop Molly Poolman and that didn’t help their cause, but they really would have hoped for better.

Teenage back three players Scarlett Haddow and Bethan Mathieson did grab their opportunities when they came along for Claire Cruikshank’s side to give a glimmer of hope.

Over in Glasgow, the Warriors showed some really good signs at times and attack-wise on their day they were a match for anyone in the competition, but, ultimately, they leaked too many points and lost 32-10 at home in the battle for fourth place with Brython in round nine.

Given that they won no games out of seven in 2023/24 and won one and drew one from 10 in 2024/25, this season can certainly be seen as an improvement, but head coach Lindsey Smith and co would still have expected to have made the play-offs given the way they played at times. Losing all their home games at Scotstoun hurt them.

A plus for them was the way young co-captains Holland Bogan and Ceitidh Ainsworth led their charges and it may not be too long before we see the uncapped duo in Scotland action.

Talking of Scotland, what will new head coach Sione Fukofuka have made of it all in recent months?

He and new senior assistant coach Ioan Cunningham have been able to take in quite a few of the Celtic Challenge games live and have also been in with the two squads at training at various times.

A large batch of Celtic Challenge players were also part of the first Scotland meet up of the Fukuoka era in Edinburgh in January.

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There are certainly talented young players coming through in Scotland as the four-year cycle towards the 2029 Rugby World Cup in Australia begins and Fukofuka will have one eye on the longer-term, but for now 99 percent of his focus will be on the Six Nations opener with Wales at the Principality Stadium on April 11th.

And, in terms of that, the Celtic Challenge experience for Edinburgh and Glasgow may have thrown up more questions than answers for him in terms of which newbies are ready to make the step up into the international game to supplement the experienced core of the squad that remains post-World Cup 2025.