{"id":149826,"date":"2025-09-17T13:35:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T13:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/149826\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T13:35:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T13:35:12","slug":"uncertainty-as-sru-set-to-cut-womens-contracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/149826\/","title":{"rendered":"Uncertainty as SRU set to cut women’s contracts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Rhona Lloyd<\/a> scored Scotland\u2019s<\/a> consolation try with the clock in the red in Sunday\u2019s Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup<\/a> quarter-final defeat to England<\/a> in Bristol all sorts of emotions came pouring out from her and her team mates.<\/p>\n

Tears were streaming down the winger\u2019s face as the players surely felt pride at having made it to the last eight and a real sense of togetherness after battling through the whole summer to that point amid some challenging circumstances.<\/p>\n

But they also felt a pervading sense of sadness because they knew that once referee Aur\u00e9lie Groizeleau blew the final whistle soon after the 40-8 reverse at Ashton Gate that it really was going to be the end of an era.<\/p>\n

\"VideoPortia Woodman-Wickliffe receives Women\u2019s Top 50 award<\/p>\n

New Zealand Women\u2019s superstar Portia Woodman-Wickliffe spoke to RugbyPass after receiving the prestigious, inaugural RugbyPass Women\u2019s Top 50 award this week. <\/p>\n

View Top 50<\/a><\/p>\n

\"VideoPortia Woodman-Wickliffe receives Women\u2019s Top 50 award<\/p>\n

New Zealand Women\u2019s superstar Portia Woodman-Wickliffe spoke to RugbyPass after receiving the prestigious, inaugural RugbyPass Women\u2019s Top 50 award this week. <\/p>\n

The coaching team, led by head coach Bryan Easson and his trusty long-time defence coach Tyrone Holmes<\/a>, will not be part of things going forward.<\/p>\n

Experienced players Jade Konkel (74 caps) and Lisa Cockburn<\/a> (37 caps) had signalled pre-match that they would be retiring from international rugby upon Scotland\u2019s exit from the competition.<\/p>\n

And, since the match, Caity Mattinson<\/a> (37 caps) has also announced her retirement from Scotland<\/a> duties and more could follow in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

That is because currently the overriding emotion and feeling among the bulk of the playing group is uncertainty.<\/p>\n

The build up to the World Cup in England was \u201cvery disruptive\u201d according to skipper Rachel Malcolm<\/a> amid contract talks and the difficult timing of the news that Easson was to be leaving his post.<\/p>\n

And it now seems, if the majority of reports are to be believed, that only around 15 players will have contracts with Scottish Rugby going forward.<\/p>\n

If that is to be the case then it means that for sixth in the world Scotland to continue to try and close the gap on the top four in the world will be increasingly difficult heading into 2026 and beyond.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re at a very pivotal point,\u201d skipper Rachel Malcolm<\/a>, who has signalled her intention to play on, said. \u201cWe have had a core group for the best part of 10 years now as Scotland women and we\u2019ve grown hugely and it kind of feels like we are just on the crest of something pretty special.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 32 players that have been at this World Cup have shown that with support and having people training in full-time environments with excellent coaches just how far we can go.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I want to see for the future of this game is that support to not decrease but continue. I think to do that we need to just keep driving it, we need to keep challenging it and use this as a springboard into the next phase of Scotland women.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked what CEO Alex Williamson, performance director David Nucifora<\/a> and the rest of the hierarchy at Scottish Rugby can do to help the women\u2019s game progress and not stall or go backwards, the skipper stated: \u201cJust to listen. We [as players] know this game better than anyone. We\u2019re a part of this thing and I think we all want the same thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to push Scotland women forward. We want to be a part of Scottish rugby. We want to work together to get us to compete with the likes of England.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think, with the player voice incorporated in that, then we can definitely move this sport forward and this team forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outgoing head coach Easson added: \u201cIn three years we\u2019ve gone professional [28 players were given professional contracts post the 2021 World Cup played in 2022 in New Zealand] and in three years we\u2019ve gone to fifth in the world and are now sixth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve qualified for two Rugby World Cups<\/a> and we\u2019ve got to the latter stage of a World Cup \u2013 that doesn\u2019t happen by accident.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look after players and you invest in the future and what you want it to look like, you don\u2019t just stop that, you\u2019ve got to keep building on that.<\/p>\n

\u201cInvestment is up to the powers that be where they see the future going, but you have to invest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever happens next one thing is for sure, there needs to be some serious bridge building done between the Scottish Rugby hierarchy and the top female players.<\/p>\n

The departing Konkel, who will continue to play for Harlequins<\/a> in the PWR, said pointedly post-match on Sunday: \u201cThe fact that we made it to a quarter-final here is \u2013 I\u2019m not going to lie \u2013 through no help of the SRU [Scottish Rugby Union].\u201d<\/p>\n

Going forward it is thought that Scottish Rugby want to reshape the women\u2019s game by strengthening Edinburgh Rugby and Glasgow Warriors who play in the Celtic Challenge<\/a> competition against Welsh and Irish sides.<\/p>\n

Currently the majority of the international squad play their club rugby in England and France.<\/p>\n

Konkel, the 31-year-old back-rower who was Scotland\u2019s first ever professional female player back in 2016, added: \u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen in the next couple of months.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the long-term plan of growing the game in Scotland is a fantastic idea, in fact I think it\u2019s a brilliant idea, but I think time is what that would need and unfortunately everything is being chucked at that right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve never disagreed with that decision of what they want in a long-term plan, but it\u2019s sad that we\u2019ve come into this tournament with uncertainty of contracts when we want to be growing the game in the professional era. We\u2019ve had such a core group of players now that we want to keep competing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the end of a World Cup<\/a> so it is a rebuild year, but come the Six Nations<\/a> in 2026 we don\u2019t want to be back on the other side of those results, we want to keep pushing and performing and that comes with a slow change not just all up and go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if she had a final message for those at the top end of the governing body, Konkel simply said: \u201cRespect us \u2013 know that this is a programme that we pour our lives into.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Rhona Lloyd scored Scotland\u2019s consolation try with the clock in the red in Sunday\u2019s Women\u2019s Rugby World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-149826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}