Women Tennent’s Premiership Final: Preview

The final will take place at Myreside, this Saturday 29 January, where Watsonians will host Hillhead Jordanhill to determine the winners of the Tennent’s Premiership.

Beating Stirling County 39-0, Watsonians sailed into this weekend’s final, whilst Hillhead Jordanhill secured their place with a 25-17 win over Corstorphine Cougars.

This isn’t the first time the two sides have met in the Premiership final.

The Edinburgh-side won the Tennent’s Premiership title in December 2019, defeating Hillhead Jordanhill 36-26 in a superb final at Myreside.

In this week’s episode of the Official Scottish Rugby podcast, Jamie McMillian, Chris Paterson, and Rachel Malcolm caught up with Hillhead Captain, Debbie Lee, to chat about the team’s season so far and their preparations for the final.

“There has not been an easy game this season, every game we go into everything is important; something we haven’t come across before, so we never go into any of the games thinking we’re going to win it easily, and they’ve all been challenging’’, said Lee, who plays Number 8.

“Other teams are just bringing the standard of play up, and the whole league in general is getting better which is an extremely good thing.

“We have been doing a lot more conditioning and fitness-based training, whilst working on our skills – everything is very focused on being done right which is different but important.”

“The success from Hillhead this season I’d say has been from the forwards, we work really hard, and the back-row make a lot of correct moves, so when we get it all right we’re usually over the line.”

Scottishrugby.org also spoke with Freddie Main, Watsonians Women Head Coach, who hopes to see his team go out and simply enjoy their time out on the pitch this weekend.

“We’ve been reflecting on what we’ve done to get to this point to what we can do better,’’ said Freddie.

“Nobody could have predicted that score line against Stirling in the semi-final, they are a very good side. Our players have worked hard to understand and execute their roles with clarity and that was evident from their performance.”

“This weekend, we are looking to be present in every part of the game and aim for a good performance, but we also want to go out and play some nice rugby and enjoy each other’s company.”

“This is a totally different squad to the one that currently holds the Premiership title. It’s been really satisfying to see players come into our environment and embed in our culture, enjoy their rugby, and enjoy learning it.

“It’s not been an easy time over the last two years, so we’re just really grateful to be able to play and spend this time together more than anything.”

Saturday 29 January – Watsonians v Hillhead; Myreside, Women Tennent’s Premiership Final, (kick-off 1:30pm GMT)

Scottish Rugby will be covering the best of the action across the @scotlandteam Social Media channels, with a match report becoming available on Saturday evening, plus full highlights and interviews from the game next week.