Blacklock announces international retirement

ST ANDREWS, SCOTLAND - AUGUST 07: Beth Blacklock during a Scotland Women's World Cup squad announcement at the Old Course, on August 07, 2025, in St Andrews, Scotland. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

Blacklock earned six caps for Scotland, making her final appearance against Fiji at the 2025 Rugby World Cup in England.  

Hailing from Mersea Island in Essex, Blacklock previously played a small amount of rugby at Colchester Minis, before trying her hand in a multitude of sports including football and sailing. Beth returned to rugby when attending Durham University, having been recruited by fellow Scotland star, Coreen Grant. 

She then went on to played for PWR side, DMP Sharks, before joining Harlequins ahead of the 2020/21 season and later moved across London to Saracens for the 2023/24 season where she has remained since. 

Having impressed through her strong carrying and kicking abilities in the PWR, Blacklock earned her first Scotland call up ahead of the 2023 Women’s Six Nations, making her international debut from the bench against England.  

As it so often goes in sport, Beth had a difficult experience with injuries, and it took over two years for her to achieve her fourth cap. In that time Beth was no stranger to Scotland as she starred for Glasgow Warriors in the Celtic Challenge, making five appearances and scoring two tries. 

Beth Blacklock of Scotland and Lisa Cockburn celebrate following the team’s victory in the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 Pool B match between Scotland and Wales at the Salford Community Stadium on August 23, 2025 in Salford, England. (Photo by Molly Darlington – World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images)

She made her long-awaited return for Scotland for the first time in two and a half years in the team’s summer Test match against Ireland ahead of the Rugby World Cup 2025. She was given the honour of walking the team off the bus carrying Scotland Women’s first international match ball from 1993, a moment that was no doubt made even more special after the challenges she had faced.  

Away from rugby Beth has had a flourishing career as a Data Engineer and aspires to become a pilot.  

Speaking on her decision, she said: “I am so incredibly excited about the next steps that Scotland Women are going to take, after having been involved during the January  camp and seeing the dream which the new team of staff have built and are passionate to work to, I honestly cannot wait to support them all. Scotland is where we should all be looking.   

“However, after taking a long time and speaking to friends and family, I have made the step to leave international rugby and pursue other routes with rugby before I’m ready to hang up my boots and start my next dream career in the flying routes. 

“Rugby, Scotland, and the World Cup was a dream come true and I am so proud of myself and the girls for what we have done together and where we got to, but the next steps that I have are in a different and very exciting direction, and one of those steps involves being a very big fan and supporter of the Scotland Women’s next development stages.    

“Playing in a Rugby World Cup so close to home was the dream come true. It was my goal for so long to get to that World Cup and to be able to go and then also have the honour of representing Scotland on the field was a surreal and life changing experience.  

“Rugby has always been a shorter period of my life than it should have been, being distracted by other sports on my way to finding it, but I’m so glad that I did. I have some close friends to thank for that, and my family’s support. They led me to rugby and then helped me fall in love with it, along with the people in it.  

“Thank you to all of my friends and family for supporting me through all of my rugby steps, and thank you to Scotland and Scotland Women for building me a family and home. I feel very lucky and blessed to have the family I have, both through blood and rugby.”