Scottish Rugby unveil newly formatted women's performance pathway system

Scottish Rugby have unveiled their reformatted performance pathway system for women’s rugby.

The new high performance pathway provides an aligned system, which the union hopes can offer a better runway to develop world-class players.

This redevelopment has come after a review with internal and external stakeholders of women’s rugby in Scotland.

Led by Head of Women’s performance and Pathways, Andy Rhys-Jones, the pathway system has five core principles:

• To have one aligned and connected pathway from community to elite level with defined objectives at each stage
• To have strong foundations, investing in infrastructure and programmes to enable long-term and sustainable success
• To grow and strengthen the base, supporting clubs and schools to enhance player development, including conditioning and skills, building a stronger foundation for the game
• To accelerate development and provide targeted, high-quality support for top players, with core performances services in place
• To create a collaborative and accessible system and to remove barriers, enabling fluid entry and exit points, and to build shared ownership across stakeholders

David Nucifora, Scottish Rugby Performance Director, said: “This system is designed to ensure players are fully prepared to transition into Scotland Women and meet the demands of the international environment.

“Our aspirations for the pathway is to see an increased quality of players across all levels as well as an improved competitiveness of domestic pro-teams.

“We have opportunities to prove ourselves on the world stage both within the new WXV Global series, as well as the Rugby World Cups in 2029 and 2033. Bringing in changes to our pathways now, at this stage in the World Cup cycle is designed to put ourselves in the best place possible to excel at these tournaments.

“Not only do we hope to see success on the international stage but to also grow participation to create a thriving community game, with more playing opportunities.”

Scottish Rugby have replaced Regional Training Centres with a National Talent Pathway, which has been introduced with three phases at the U16, U17 and U18 ages. The National Academy Programme has been added to support players aged between 18 and 23.

Players involved at the National Talent Pathway and National Academy Programme will have opportunities to represent Scotland at age grade level.

Both the National Talent Pathway and National Academy Programme will act as feeder clubs for Celtic Challenge teams Edinburgh Rugby and Glasgow Warriors, but also for Great Britain Sevens in HSBC SVNS competition.

Both programmes have managers put in place, with Claire Cruikshank installed as the first Women’s National Academy manager.

The former Scotland international has left her role as Edinburgh Rugby Women’s head coach and recently worked as skills coach for Scotland’s senior team during the team’s fifth-place finish at the 2026 Guinness Women’s Six Nations.

Andy Rhys-Jones, Head of Women’s Performance and Pathways, said: “I am excited to see the new performance system and programmes get underway and we will be announcing players involved in coming weeks.

“Bringing in experienced leaders, like Claire Cruikshank, is key to ensuring the success of these programmes and I am confident that she will bring invaluable expertise to the role.

“Claire has a wealth of experience in player development and a clear understanding of what is required to help players progress through the pathway.

“Our aim is to create one aligned and connected pathway from community to elite level, with clear objectives at each stage, while investing in strong foundations, infrastructure and programmes that will support long-term and sustainable success.

“Clubs, colleges, universities, the Arnold Clark Premiership, the U16-U18 Inter-district and Pro-alignment Programmes will continue to play an important role in the talent identification throughout the pathway.”