Scotland aiming for record when England visit Murrayfield in Women’s Six Nations

Scotland are aiming to host the country’s biggest-ever crowd for a women’s standalone sporting event after it was revealed that next year’s Guinness Women’s Six Nations showdown with England will take place at Murrayfield Stadium.

The Scots have played their home matches at Edinburgh’s 7,800-capacity Hive Stadium since 2021.

However, Scottish Rugby, encouraged by growing interest in the women’s game, announced that next April’s showpiece fixture against England will be staged at the 67,000-capacity national stadium.

The organisation’s head of women and girls’ strategy, Gemma Fay, is hoping they can drum up an even a bigger crowd than the 18,555 that watched Scotland’s women’s football team in a pre-World Cup friendly at Hampden in May 2019.

“We know the current record exists with Scottish football right now, and I was there,” said Fay, a former Scotland footballer. “It was a wonderful day, an amazing atmosphere, and we want to replicate that out here.

“We want to do even better. And if other teams want to challenge us to get that highest standalone women’s sporting event in Scotland, please do, because we want to push everybody together.

“For us, this is not just about raising the standard, the awareness and the visibility of Scottish women’s rugby in a Rugby World Cup year. This is about everybody in women’s sport in Scotland raising that together, because we know ourselves that we can only do this together with the other sports.

“We’ve got just under a year to sell this fixture, that was purposeful. We’ve got a wonderful World Cup to look forward to that’s happening in England. That’s already record-breaking (in terms of ticket sales) and we want to use that momentum to push us forward.”

Scotland Women have played at Murrayfield only twice before – but never on the scale anticipated next April. Full-back Chloe Rollie is relishing the chance to represent her country in front of a big crowd at the national stadium.

“Over the years I’ve been to Murrayfield a lot to support the men’s team and I wished I could run up and down that pitch, be there catching a high ball with the team that I’m with just now and making memories like that,” said the 29-year-old.

“I didn’t think this would ever happen, I played at Broadwood, my first cap (in 2015), there were maybe not even 200 people there and 75 per cent of that was family and friends, so it was almost like you played the game and that was it, there were no fans there wanting autographs or wanting pictures.

“To see where it is now, you’re taking an hour to get through the tunnel because you’ve got people asking for autographs, asking for pictures, asking for your boots, your socks etc, it’s really amazing to see that change and to have that opportunity again to raise those numbers is massive.”