'It really is like night and day': Rollie excited to play in highest attended Scottish women’s match

When Chloe Rollie played her first home game for Scotland on Valentine’s Day 2015 it was in front of a crowd of 461 at Broadwood Stadium in Cumbernauld in a 39-3 defeat to Wales.

That was her second cap and now, fast forward just over 11 years, she is getting set to win cap number 83 in front of a crowd of in excess of 25,000 at Scottish Gas Murrayfield this coming Saturday when world champions England head to Edinburgh in round two of the Women’s Six Nations.

The numbers 461 and 25,000+ in themselves sum up the massive growth of the women’s game north of the border – and in general – over the last decade or so.

It was a big decision by then Scottish Rugby’s head of women and girls’ strategy Gemma Fay to announce last June that the governing body would be moving a women’s international into the 67,144-capacity Murrayfield.

This is set to be one of the highest ever attended Scottish women’s sporting occasions and it will be the first time Scotland have played a standalone women’s game in the stadium with supporters present.

Rollie has played in front of her fair share of crowds, but this weekend coming up will be a whole different ball game.

“To be getting the chance to play at Scottish Gas Murrayfield in front of a big crowd is amazing,” said the full back.

“We never took that for granted and pulling on the Scotland shirt has always been special for me since I made my debut in France away 11 years ago in the Six Nations and then played at home to Wales in the next game.

“But now to go down to the Principality Stadium [like Scotland did at the weekend beating Wales 24-19] and play in places like that is totally different, it really is like night and day.

“We are now playing on some of the world’s biggest stages, like when you’re playing in South Africa you’re in the DHL Stadium in Cape Town and when you’re playing in New Zealand you’re in amazing stadiums as well.

“I think it just shows how far women’s rugby has come, going from playing at Broadwood – indeed, even before my time the national team were playing at grounds without stands – to going to places like the Principality and then the Aviva Stadium later in this Six Nations.

“All Scottish rugby players, male or female, grow up dreaming of playing at Murrayfield and this game against England is going to be special.”

What is also special is the Toulon Provence Méditerranée player’s try scoring record for Scotland. Since her first try against Spain in a win on the road in early 2016, she has scored 26 more.

International try number 27 came for the full-back at the weekend against Wales – good hands by centres Emma Orr and Meryl Smith and winger Rhona Lloyd putting her in – the 30-year-old displaying a great ability of being in the right place at the right time.

She is only behind Lucy Millard (37) and Donna Kennedy and the aforementioned Lloyd (both 29) in Scotland women’s try scorers list while she is the country’s most capped back behind forwards Kennedy (115), Heather Lockhart (89), Karen Findlay (86) and her great pal and current team mate Lana Skeldon who is on 85.

“When I was 13 or 14-years-old in the Scottish Borders myself and Lana were playing rugby together and we had a conversation once where it was like ‘oh, imagine if we could play rugby and be paid for it’,” Rollie continued.

“Obviously, a few years later, that happened. We both ended up getting contracts and it was just an amazing experience.

“My aim is to get to 100, but even to be on that wall in the changing room in Murrayfield is amazing. It shows all the caps, the cap numbers and how far up I am (in the caps chart) always catches me out a bit, I still don’t fully believe that I’m up that high.

“I just turn up to training, turn up to games, play and enjoy myself. I don’t really think about it and the number of caps, but, when someone mentions it, it makes me think about it and I’m just really proud and I think I’ll just keep going until I literally can’t anymore.”

Fixture

Womens Six Nations

Scotland Women

05:30

18 Apr 26

England Women

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