'Scottish Rugby's blue-sky thinking fine, but execution everything'

Scotland reached the quarter-finals of the 2025 World Cup

And so after weeks of heavy criticism from current and former players, Scottish Rugby has presented its vision of the future of the women's game.

Like human punchbags, the SRU has accepted the flak thrown in its direction this past while after players found out that their deals were not getting renewed - and that their professional career was possibly over - prior to the World Cup.

Captain Rachel Malcolm said the contractual farago was "unfair" and a "distraction" that "made my job tougher".

Veteran Jade Konkel said the team made the World Cup quarter-final "through no help of the SRU".

She, and others, called for more respect from the powers-that-be at Murrayfield, who have taken a pounding from supporters.

Their response came on Thursday, the bottom line being the announcement of 28 full-time one-year professional contracts (down one on last time) and seven development contracts (up four on last time).

Of the World Cup squad, 22 of the 32 will get a new deal. Three have retired.

A new high-performance programme will be run out of Oriam in Edinburgh, where the national men's team train, and that will be opened up to a further 15 players.

There was the usual fighting talk about their commitment to the women's game, with chief executive Alex Williamson and performance director David Nucifora presenting their plan, or parts of the plan.

What are they planning to do?

Ultimately, the SRU wants to create an infrastructure at Glasgow and Edinburgh that's so progressive it will lure their players home from England.

Right now, they're miles off it.

Glasgow and Edinburgh exist within the modest Celtic Challenge competition and they're bit-part players in it.

In the most recent tournament, Edinburgh won two out of 10 and Glasgow only one. The Scots finished bottom and second bottom of the six-team league.

Good luck trying to get stars such as Francesca McGhie to return to that.

In fairness to the SRU, it knows the scale of the problem. The question is whether its solutions have heft behind them or whether they're just glorified PR.

The union is going to appoint a national team coach and two assistant coaches in the coming months. These three will not just run the national team and the performance operation at Oriam - they'll be coaching Glasgow and Edinburgh, too.

Nucifora says there's been interest in those jobs from far and wide. If - and it remains an if - the SRU can bring in some highly respected operators, it would be a good first step.

A new managing director for the women's game and a new head of pathways will also be recruited. These positions haven't existed before. Steps forward, for sure.

Appointments will be made in the next week or so and you can be sure that every professional Scottish player will be watching that situation closely.

The rumour is that Gemma Fay, the SRU's head of women's and girl's strategy, is a contender for the pathways role. If that happens, you'd give more than a penny for the thoughts of the current squad. Fay has her critics, put it that way.

"We had a number of good candidates, both internal and external," said Williamson.

"We're looking to materially strengthen the support we provide players in Scotland and build an infrastructure that enables not only our senior but also our young, talented players to progress in the country.

"In summary, we're giving more financial support to players to be professional in the country that they started to learn the game in."

Nucifora said the women's performance programme will involve sports science, physio, performance analysis, nutrition, medical and sports psychology.

"The aim will be to accelerate the development of these players as quickly as we can to let them reach their potential as fast as possible," he added.

"It's an exciting time for women's rugby in Scotland. I think you'll find that a lot more players will start to talk about coming back to play their rugby in Scotland."

That's a big statement. It's the correct vision and it sounds logical but making it happen is going to be a mighty challenge.

Have Scotland reached their ceiling?

There was not a lot of detail on the financial side.

How much will all of this cost? No numbers were provided. Instead there was just a commitment to spend more than they've previously spent on the women's game.

"I can't give you the specifics," said Williamson, who insisted he would provide some clarity around the numbers in due course.

There's a question, though. Given how small the game is in Scotland, is a World Cup quarter-final the ceiling?

A devil's advocate might argue that you could pump fortunes into women's rugby in Scotland and still not do much better than sixth in the world rankings, where they currently sit.

Fifth is achievable. Breaking into the top four looks a mile off. Ambition versus reality is an interesting debate.

Scotland's World Cup squad included 27 players operating outside the country, mostly in the PWR in England. The other five were based at home.

The number of contracts offered to players who are playing outside the country is now going to become 17, so there's a conundrum here.

If you're reducing your number of contracted players from the best women's pro league in the world, how are you going to survive in international competition?

The non-contracted English-based players may now have to go back to work to make a living. Some will not have the financial freedom to spend the same amount of time on bettering themselves as rugby players, so the fear is that Scotland may lose some international players.

Given 29 players saw game-time in the last Six Nations there has to be a fear that the new Scotland coach is going to have a pretty shallow pool of talent to pick from.

All of this puts an even greater focus on Glasgow and Edinburgh. All of a sudden, they are getting 11 full-time pros and seven development players. A huge hike.

Williamson said the Celtic Challenge is on "upward trajectory". That's a hard case to argue given how poorly the Scottish teams have done.

"We believe in that programme," he said. "We believe in the opportunities of WXV, which combined with the Six Nations, offers a tremendous opportunity to play high-quality rugby and to develop quickly.

"Over this four-year cycle, we will see an increased investment with a view that the Celtic challenge will hopefully grow to the extent that the British and Irish League is a natural consequence."

A "natural consequence" is a colossal stretch. Scotland has a long, long way to go to get their teams into a fit enough state for any would-be British and Irish League. As do the Irish and Welsh. It's years away, if it happens at all.

"I'm very confident if you were to bring the home unions into the room that there would be an agreement, from a commercial perspective, that the strongest possible outcome would be a consolidated league," said Williamson.

That's highly debatable given that English women's club rugby really has no need to import new clubs from outside.

"We have to have the muscle to have the conversation. And at the moment, we don't have that," added the chief executive. That's putting it mildly.

Why haven't they named the players?

Considering the kicking the SRU has received, you might have thought Thursday was an opportunity to unveil the names of the chosen ones.

There'd be lots of good stories there. Established players re-contracted, some new ones given a chance, some youngsters being brought into the performance arena.

No names were provided.

"We absolutely will [provide the names]," said Williamson. "We're not hiding away from that.

"Today's about discussing the evolution of the women's game, the fact we're bringing the game back into Scotland, setting up the high-performance environment for the first time.

"Then, over the next few weeks, we will talk about the players, the management team, the new head coach and everything else that goes alongside that."

Naming the recipients of the 28 full-time contracts and the seven development contracts - and maybe having a number of them talking about the realisation of a dream - might have been a way to go.

The SRU has not been sitting on its hands, and it knows what needs to be done.

But the execution of the plan is everything now, starting with those coaching and management appointments. They can't afford a single mis-step.