‘It hurt my soul’: Rachel Malcolm hopes Test return can reignite Scotland’s defensive grit

Talismanic captain Rachel Malcolm believes that Scotland lost their identity as a team between late last year and during the Guinness Women’s Six Nations in 2026.

She has also stated that shipping 267 points – including 41 tries – in five games as they finished a disappointing fifth in that Women’s Six Nations campaign “hurt” her soul given the importance the squad has placed on defence in recent years.

Now, with a busy period of WXV Global Series action getting underway this weekend, the 35-year-old Trailfinders Women’s back-row has vowed to help get the national team back up to the levels that they know they are capable of.

They want to rediscover the unique Scotland DNA and the identity of the team that helped them post some very good results in 2024 and 2025.

Asked ahead of Saturday’s Hive Stadium clash with Canada if Scotland lost their identity during the Women’s Six Nations, Malcolm said: “Yeah, 100 per cent. I think probably in the period between the World Cup and the end of the Six Nations, I would say our identity became a little bit unclear.

“That comes from a number of things, we had a core group of players for about a decade and that really changed.

“Then obviously the change in coaching staff which happened twice within a short period of time.

“With that, that’s always going to be new ideas and not having that consistency of ideas.

“Anyone that knows me knows that defence is my favourite part of rugby.

“And I think it hurt my soul a little bit to see how much we slipped off after the World Cup in that area and kind of lost that identity of being a team that was really hard to score against.”

After reaching the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 quarter-finals last September, long-time head coach Bryan Easson departed and was replaced by Australian Sione Fukofuka in December.

Under his guidance – and with new senior assistant coach Ioan Cunningham working with him and leading on defence – Scotland won one and lost four games in the Women’s Six Nations before both departed in the summer, Fukofuka for family and personal reasons and Cunningham to pursue new opportunities

Fukofuka has since been named Australia head coach and he takes up that role in 2027, while Dave Butcher – brought in as an assistant earlier this year – is now Scotland’s interim head coach.

Over the last few weeks during pre-season, Butcher has been working closely with his hastily installed assistant coaches Chris Laidlaw, Tom Luke and Robbie Fergusson and the players’ leadership group headed up by Malcolm and vice-captain Helen Nelson to remodel things and get everyone singing from the same hymn sheet once again.

“I think we’re really in a place right now where we buy into what we want to do,” Malcolm, who missed three games in the Women’s Six Nations through injury and will be earning her 65th cap against Canada, explained.

“I feel so much happier and more confident about where we are as a Scotland team right now than I felt during, before or after the Six Nations and I think that’s a really cool place to be.

“That group [of players that were at last year’s World Cup], in my opinion, was probably one of the best Scotland women’s teams of our time.

“We had a huge amount of time together under the same coaching staff and that consistency took us five to 10 years to build.

“I wouldn’t say we’re rebuilding from the get-go now, but we are definitely in a phase where we’re trying to develop and get back to that point.

“I think the most exciting thing about that is the development that we’ve made within the last five weeks.

“Dave has been nothing short of phenomenal since he took over.

“The girls love him and he’s taken everything in his stride and, probably most importantly, he has put together a really cohesive coaching group.

“I don’t think it’ll be perfect by any means on Saturday, but I think the fact that we really have belief in the way we want to play on both sides of the ball is a pretty nice place to be in.

“It’s given us the hunger to go and play for Scotland and go and win for Scotland and I definitely say we’re moving in the right direction.”

Malcolm has been around long enough to know that things will not change overnight, especially with the game against third in the world Canada being closely followed by second in the world New Zealand’s trip to Edinburgh seven days later.

But she wants her seventh in the world team to get back to one that the Scottish supporters recognise and she wants to build momentum ahead of the three Tests with Australia which are to come later this month and next.

“I have absolutely no doubt that there’s a huge amount more in us and I think this competition gives us five Test matches against world class opposition to go and push ourselves and see how much we can stretch that in a short space of time,” she concluded.

“The last five weeks has been a really good push forward.

“I don’t think we are the finished product by any means and I think there’s definitely more in us, particularly from a physicality point of view, but we need to play some rugby to get up to speed on that front.

“What is making me excited is the general feeling around the group and that we are excited to defend again.

“We have real clarity in how we want to defend.

“I really feel positively about how we’ve prepared as individuals, but also around how [defence coach] Chris Laidlaw has come in and really embedded those new defensive principles for us.

“It’s going to be a tough challenge against Canada, we’re probably playing against the best attack in the world on Saturday and for any defence that’s going to be challenging.

“But for us it’s a really good opportunity to go and test ourselves against the best in front of a home crowd who are always behind us.”