Scotland's Evie Gallagher promises 'different brand of rugby' at WXV

Evie Gallagher was part of the Scotland squad that reached a record high of fifth in the World Rugby rankings two years ago and was also part of the squad that put in an excellent showing versus Wales a year ago at the Women’s Rugby World Cup in England.

And, after a frustrating one-win Guinness Women’s Six Nations campaign, the fit-again Bristol Bears No.8 believes the Scots can find that level again – and she says they will be playing “a completely different brand of rugby” during the upcoming WXV Global Series than what we saw earlier in the year.

Interim head coach Dave Butcher, who joined in February as an assistant, is now in charge ahead of September home Tests with Canada, New Zealand and Australia, and then two matches down under in October.

He has replaced Sione Fukofuka, who was recently appointed Wallaroos’ head coach just eight days after leaving the same role with Scotland when he was released from that contract after eight months due to family and personal reasons, at the helm.

Senior assistant coach Ioan Cunningham also departed recently meaning that Butcher and his new assistants Chris Laidlaw, Tom Luke and Robbie Fergusson are starting from scratch.

But, rather than worry about the short build up time to the WXV Global Series and all the new faces in the coaching team, Gallagher feels that a different approach could be good for everyone.

“We’re going to be playing a completely different brand of rugby,” the 40-capper, who turns 26 this weekend, said.

“Due to injury, I wasn’t really involved under Sione at all, but Dave’s very keen to start fresh. We’ve got new assistant coaches who have come in as well so we’re a different team than the team that Sione coached.

“This squad goes through adversity like no one else, we’re very good at sticking together and just focusing on the rugby, indeed, we’ve actually got pretty used to just powering on.

“Everyone’s excited to just start fresh with a new campaign. We’re a very tight-knit group so we’re just focusing on everything we can do to make this WXV campaign a positive one.

“As a squad, we know that Six Nations wasn’t our best, injuries and things aside, we just didn’t perform how we know we can.

“That’s what hurts us the most as a group – we don’t want to just play for Scotland, we want to win for Scotland.

“We’re really focusing this preseason on getting back to playing with the attacking threat we had at the World Cup and getting back to performances that we can be proud of.”

A week is a long time in rugby never mind anything else and it does seem like a lifetime ago since the Scots went up to five in the world 24 months ago and then completed an impressive 38-8 group stage bonus point win over Wales in Salford at the Women’s Rugby World Cup 12 months ago, on the way to a quarter-final exit.

Lots has changed of late then for the national squad, but one big plus for them right now is having Gallagher – a player who will be in the mix for British & Irish Lions Women selection next year – back in the fold after a hamstring injury saw her miss the entire Women’s Six Nations.

And as she strains at the leash to get back into Test rugby once more, Gallagher is confident the squad can hit the heights of 2024 and 2025 again.

“We have talked about that Wales game in the World Cup being the strongest we’ve felt as a group,” she stated.

“We had a game plan, we stuck to it and we went out and we performed 1-23.

“The whole squad was part of that performance and we want to get back to those levels and the levels that took us to number five in the rankings a couple of years ago.

“Dips come for all teams and that Wales performance a year ago is what we want to build off rather than the Six Nations performances.

“I think definitely getting back to being more of an attacking threat is something that Dave wants.

“All the coaches are connecting really well.

“They’re all just striving to get us in the best possible position to perform to the level that they know we can.

“It’s all been really positive so far and it’s really exciting to see what it’s going to look like when it all comes together in a match.”

Key to any attacking aspirations that Scotland have over the next couple of months is attack coach Tom Luke.

He is on secondment from Bristol until October 31 before he will return to his club for the 2026/27 JAECOO Premiership Women’s Rugby campaign and, having worked with him at the Bears, Gallagher is clearly a fan of the way he goes about things.

She enthused: “With Tom coming in from Bears as attack coach, he’s putting a lot of work into getting us playing some exciting rugby.

“I’ve never played under a coach before who has such ‘out there’ ideas, he likes to just push you to be the best player you can be.

“He’ll try anything to make different players work in a way that best fits the team and he’ll make different players perform to their strengths.

“I think the best way to get people to perform is to let them play to their strengths and let them play freely and he’s very open to that so I am excited to see what Scotland’s attack can look like under him.”