Scotland's Francesca McGhie aims to make her mark at Women’s World Cup
.jpg "Francesca McGhie is one to look out for for Scotland at this World Cup")
Francesca McGhie is one to look out for for Scotland at this World Cup
©Scotland Rugby
When the last Women’s Rugby World Cup took place in 2022, Francesca McGhie was just 19 and working at a school.
Now, three years on and aged 22, she is trying to take all the lessons learnt from her exciting, fledgling rugby career and put them to good use during the upcoming event in England.
The flying winger, who will play for Trailfinders Women in 2025/26 after joining from Leicester Tigers, did not feature in either of Scotland’s summer Tests but has been declared fit for their World Cup opener against Wales at the Salford Community Stadium in Manchester on Saturday.
Given that she has scored 10 tries in 22 Tests since making her debut against England in 2023, this is a big boost for the Scots.
“I am super excited,” McGhie told TRU. “This is going to be my first World Cup so I'm very excited to just get stuck in.
“When the last World Cup was on in New Zealand, I was working at Loretto School at that point. I’ll admit that I wasn't up at 3am to watch the games, but I did watch them on replay so to then be in that Scotland squad that I had watched just a few months later was surreal.
“When my place in the squad for this tournament was confirmed, my brother and my parents were probably more excited than I was! They just live for it. It's so nice to have that support. Obviously, I was very excited myself too.
“I think a lot of the advice that I have been given about approaching a big event like this has been just to enjoy every moment of it.
“Although it is a big stage, it is still just rugby at the end of the day and I think if we don't enjoy every part of it, I'll be disappointed with my experience.
“I just need to make sure that I'm appreciating it all, taking it all in and playing rugby with a smile on my face and that is what I intend to do.”
“It was an amazing feeling to score that try”
In her last outing for Scotland at the end of the Guinness Women’s Six Nations, McGhie scored a crucial try against Ireland.
With the round five match at Hive Stadium tied at 19-19, the clock was heading towards the red, and the home side’s stand-off Helen Nelson had just returned from the sin bin.
A good lineout move gave the Scots momentum and, when it was shipped wide, replacement Lucia Scott stayed calm to pick up a bouncing ball and feed it to McGhie, who finished things off for a try that sparked celebrations.
“It was an amazing feeling to score that try,” she recounted about that 26-19 triumph in April. “All week in the lead-up to the game, we were focusing on being ourselves and being brave and I think in those last few moments we were brave.
“When Helen came back on with 30 seconds or so to go, and we had a good lineout position, we said ‘right girls, this is go time’ and we stuck to our processes and got the job done.
“In the first half, we were defending for pretty much 40 minutes so to go in ahead was massive for us. That showed the bravery we had been talking about while we also took the two chances in attack that we had.
“Our defence was really what this win was built on and we gave it everything and were brave on both sides of the ball. We definitely didn’t want to peak during the Six Nations, we wanted to be continuing along an upward trajectory and I think that is where we are going.”
“Playing England was a baptism of fire”
McGhie only took up rugby via East Lothian Girls training in 2018 after a background in hockey, lacrosse, and dancing, the latter seeing her involved with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland at the time.
However, once she picked up a rugby ball, it soon became her sport of choice. In 2021/22, her first senior season, the former Loretto and George Watson’s College pupil scored a hat-trick of tries for Watsonians as they won the Tennent’s Premiership final against Hillhead Jordanhill.
By that time, she was well on the radar of the Scotland Futures and full Scotland coaches, and scintillating form in the Celtic Challenge competition for the Thistles early in 2023 sealed her call-up to the main squad.
“My first cap against England definitely was a baptism of fire,” she said of a 58-7 defeat at Kingston Park in Newcastle in the Six Nations of 2023.
“I’ll admit that it was a massive step up at the time, but I took lots from it, and I knew then that I wanted to give rugby my all.
“Personally, and on the rugby pitch, I think my development has been huge since then and being part of this Scotland squad is like a dream for me.
“I've definitely made myself proud over the last two and a half years since my first cap in terms of the rugby achievements I've had. Now I want to kick on and make my mark at the World Cup.”
After the Wales Pool B game, Scotland will play Fiji in Manchester on August 30 and Canada in Exeter on September 6.
