Cruikshank making the most of 'brilliant' latest Scotland opportunity

Claire Cruikshank is enjoying the challenge of being part of the Scotland coaching team during the 2026 Guinness Women’s Six Nations.

And, as discussions continue within the women’s game about the best way to get more female coaches involved at the top level, she feels that the key to any coaching set up is a good mix of people who bring “different things to the table” whether they be male or female.

Cruikshank, who earned five caps for her country in her playing days, has been involved in coaching for many years now at varying different levels and, until late 2024, was long time head of women’s rugby at Edinburgh University.

During her time at Peffermill she brought through many players who have gone on to represent Scotland. A number of them are currently involved with the national team squad.

During the 2021 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand she was part of the Scotland coaching team thanks to World Rugby’s coaching internship . In 2024, she was with the squad in South Africa for the WXV 2 competition as part of the Gallagher High Performance Academy programme.

Around 18 months or so ago she became the first full-time coach of Edinburgh Rugby women’s team in the Celtic Challenge, while Cruikshank’s coaching CV also includes time spent as head coach of the Sweden women’s national team, and a number of roles with Scotland women’s age-grade sides over the years.

Sione Fukofuka, who was appointed Scotland women’s head coach in December, brought Cruikshank on board as skills coach for this Women’s Six Nations alongside senior assistant coach Ioan Cunningham and forwards coach Dave Butcher.

On Cruikshank, Fukofuka said: “Claire’s been fantastic. She’s come in, she’s supporting the backs and done a little bit on transition and edge attack.

“Having worked in women’s rugby for years and in the Celtic Challenge she knows the players really well. Claire has been a great resource for myself and has been adding real value to the coaching group in terms of balancing the backs and forwards.”

Cruikshank herself said: “It is great to be involved with this campaign.

“I’ve been helping out with some skills and then I have been working alongside Sione on the attack side of things and helping out with the backs.

“There has been little bit of a shadowing and mentoring, but I have also been chipping in and helping out whenever I can.

“I have been helping the coaches as well given my experience within the women’s game in this country over a number of years because they’re all new to Scotland.

“They are three very experienced coaches and I’m learning different things from all of them.

“They’ve all got World Cup experience and they have all coached at the highest level in their previous roles so it’s been super exciting for me to learn from them.

Womens Six Nations

P

W

L

D

PF

PA

PD

BP T

BP-7

BP

Total

1

England Women

3

3

0

0

15

2

France Women

3

3

0

0

15

3

Italy Women

3

1

2

0

6

4

Ireland Women

3

1

2

0

5

5

Scotland Women

3

1

2

0

4

6

Wales Women

3

0

3

0

2

“It’s been brilliant for me to learn from someone from the southern hemisphere like Sione as well as learning from Ioan’s experience with Wales and Fiji and learning from Dave’s experience over in Canada and helping take them to the World Cup final last year.”

In terms of getting more female coaches involved at the elite end of the women’s game, Cruikshank is all for it, but does not believe than anything should be forced.

“I’ve probably taken a long time to get here and I’ve maybe been in and out [of the Scotland set up], but sometimes it’s got to be the right for the coach and right for the environment and putting people in that maybe aren’t ready could be detrimental to their development,” she explained.

“It’s a lot to be in an elite environment and you’ve got to be mentally ready for that as well because it’s long days, it’s long hours and there’s lots of detail you’ve got to go into.

“But, of course, the more female coaches we can get working in the grassroots game and then coming through the system, the more opportunities there will be for young girls to see that this is actually an opportunity and a career that they can aspire to.

“In general, I think it is key to have a good mix in your coaching team whether the coaches are male or female.

“Everyone’s got to bring different things to the table and one of the things hopefully I do bring from the previous working relationships I have with a lot of the current Scotland players is that I know them and, as a result, they’re comfortable to come to me and have conversations or ask my opinion on things.

“It’s just a different ear, maybe a different way of listening as well. I think within the current Scotland coaching group we complement each other well.”

During the fallow week and the early part of this week, Fukofuka, Cunningham, Butcher and Cruikshank will no doubt have had a lot of conversations about trying to get Scotland’s Women’s Six Nations campaign back on track.

The Scots have lost two games, heavily, on the spin in rounds two and three before the break. An 84-7 defeat to England at Murrayfield was followed by a 41-14 loss to Italy in Parma. As a result the round one 24-19 win in Cardiff versus Wales seems like a long time ago now.

Things do not look like getting any easier for their injury-ravaged squad as title chasing France come to Edinburgh’s Hive Stadium on Saturday in Round 4.

“The players know that they didn’t perform to the standards that they expect from themselves versus Italy,” Cruikshank stated.

“A lot of their focus this week has been about how they put the things we’ve put into practice at training into a game.

“We’ve got two big games to come in the Six Nations to finish things off with Ireland coming after France.

“Everyone’s really focused and aligned about what we want to do going into them. It’s a brilliant opportunity for us to put some wrongs right.”

The Scotland match day 23 for France will be named at midday on Thursday.