WXV Global Series 2026 review: Scotland

Numbers do not always tell the whole story, but in the case of the Scotland women, the top line numbers that jump out at you pretty much sum up what has been a disappointing 2026.

Heading into the Guinness Women’s Six Nations in April they were sixth in the world rankings. However, now in late October, they are 10th.

Things started relatively brightly this year with a win over Wales in Cardiff, but four Six Nations defeats followed after that and then five losses from five in the WXV Global Series.

Nine defeats on the spin is the worst run since the team lost 12 in a row in 2022 and 2023.

Including the Wales win, 521 points have been conceded in the 10 games this year.

As a result, 2026 has been a year that has certainly thrown up more questions than answers when it comes to Scotland.

It is always going to be tough for Scotland – and a country with their resources – to compete with the top four sides in the world England, New Zealand, Canada and France.

However, there is no reason why they cannot be competing to be ‘the best of the rest’, and indeed they reached a record high of fifth in the rankings in late 2024, but that seems like a long way away now.

When he arrived as the new head coach in December, Sione Fukofuka said, “It’s the next step that we really want to push and accelerate towards now”.

Unfortunately, that next step was a backwards once and the four-year cycle building towards Women’s Rugby World Cup 2029 in Australia now has to pretty much be looked at as a three-year one.

During the Six Nations, the losses to England and France were tough to take and the injury-hit team had run out of steam by the time they were well beaten by Ireland in Dublin in round five.

It was perhaps the manner of the defeat to Italy that hurt most as the visitors were blown away in the first half to trail 29-0 in Parma, before going on to lose 41-14 against a side they normally go toe-to-toe with.

The team finished fifth in the Six Nations, which left skipper Rachel Malcolm believing that Scotland had lost their identity as a team between reaching the World Cup last eight in 2025 and that point.

Things were clearly not clicking between head coach Fukofuka and the players and in August, he stepped down from his role for family and personal reasons.

Around that same time, senior assistant coach Ioan Cunningham, who like Fukofuka had only been in post for a few months, left to pursue new opportunities.

Fukofuka was then appointed Australia women’s head coach just eight days after leaving the same role with Scotland and, whatever the ins and outs of that were, it left a bad taste in the mouth of many Scotland supporters and those within Scottish Rugby.

Nothing stands still in sport though and Dave Butcher, who had been an assistant to Fukofuka, became interim head coach a short time before the WXV Global Series action got underway and hastily put in place a group of assistants in the shape of Chris Laidlaw, Tom Luke and Robbie Fergusson.

Home WXV losses to two of the world’s best teams in the shape of Canada and New Zealand were expected, but there was hope that a win or two could have come in the following three matches against Australia.

In the home game versus the Wallaroos, Scotland were 10-5 up at half-time but lost 30-10, while in the first away game they were blown away 56-12.

They came out fighting in the second away game and were 17-14 up at half-time, but they were left to wonder what might have been after a 38-31 reverse ended a tricky September and October.

Butcher has seen a number of green shoots and positives since he took over and to be fair, there have been some, but there is a lot of work to be done.

The positives have included the way some of the young and newer players have performed.

22-year-old hooker Aicha Sutcliffe, 21-year-old lock Holland Bogan and 22-year-old scrum-half Ceitidh Ainsworth have all really stepped up to the mark since making their debuts this year.

Winger Katie Buchanan is another who has taken her chance well, while at the other end of the experience scale, back-row Evie Gallagher has set the standards and has certainly put her hat in the ring for a British and Irish Lions call up next year.

What captain Malcolm and her teammates are craving now is consistency within the coaching set up to give them a chance to really try and kick on from 2027 onwards and get the team back to the levels they know they can reach.

Butcher seems keen to take the job on a permanent basis if it is offered to him, and currently it would seem like the best option after a year of disruption.

Following the WXV Global Series, the Scotland players will head back to their clubs and with a larger number now with Edinburgh Rugby and Glasgow Warriors having been persuaded to move north from England by the governing body, it will be interesting to see how the Celtic Challenge campaign goes.

It starts in December and the hope will be that the international players will lift standards across the two sides and will speed up the progress of the best exciting, young talent that is coming through by playing alongside them.

With the next international fixture not until April 10 when Ireland visit Murrayfield, what goes on off the pitch between then and now will be fascinating.

It’s safe to say there is certainly plenty for Scottish Rugby’s performance director David Nucifora, women’s managing director Gemma Fay, head of women’s performance and pathways Andy Rhys Jones and others to ponder.