Megan Hyland embraces National Academy opportunity

The hooker has been part of Scotland’s pathway for several years and is now one of the players working within the National Academy, introduced as part of Scottish Rugby’s aligned women’s pathways and performance system.

Under the leadership of National Academy manager Claire Cruikshank, the programme sees players aged between 18 and 23 years-old come together in the environment at Oriam High Performance Centre.

“It’s been really good to be involved with the National Academy,” Hyland, who has represented Scotland at U18, U20 and U21 level, said.

“It feels really directed in that we know what we want to get out of it as a group but also as individuals. It’s good to be in the environment where things are clear.

“We’re in pre-season at the minute, so everything is being broken down. Anything you can think of is being broken down into parts and stripped right back to the basics, like even just catching the ball.

“It’s just having the time to dedicate to work on what you need to work on and how you can get better by doing that. Having the time, the facilities and the coaches to do that with is great.”

The Scotland U21 cap, who skippered that age group during this year’s Six Nations U21s series, is embracing time spent with the National Academy to help continue her development at hooker, having played in the back row for most of her time in the game.

“I’ve moved to hooker and it’s been a period of transition over the last couple of years,” she added.

“I just want to chase consistency in that and consistency in my skillset within throwing and scrumming, but also just improving the standard of what I do on the pitch so in my contact skills, my passing, my footwork and just raising the standard across my whole game.

“I’ve got the opportunity to come in here every week – four times a week – to go and do that. I don’t want to just let the time fly by in and not embrace what a massive opportunity this is.

“We can’t take for granted that we are because there are people who would love to be part of this programme.”

The environment also contains plenty of familiar faces for the Stonehaven native. From manager Claire Cruikshank, whom she first worked with at Scotland U20 level, to teammates she has progressed through the pathway with.

Those established relationships have helped create a strong training environment.

“We’ve always had a good environment in every programme I’ve been in, but with this group right now, we have a lot of girls who have played together through the pathways or U18s, U20s and U21s, so we have a core group,” Megan explained.

“We’re a group who have grown and experienced a lot together, so we know what each other’s goals are and we know how each other like to work.

“We can hold each other accountable, and it does not become personal because we know each other so well.”

Those strong relationships have been a constant throughout Megan’s rugby journey, which started at a taster session at Mackie Primary School in Stonehaven.

After missing the original session in P1 due to a broken arm, she spent the next year talking about rugby, giving her parents no choice but to take her along at the next opportunity aged seven.

She has gone on to play club rugby at Montrose, Dundee, Garioch and Heriot’s, as well as featuring for Glasgow Warriors – with 2026/27 set to be her fourth campaign at Scotstoun – and Scotland across age grades.

“It’s the people I’ve played and worked with that have kept me in the sport from a young age,” Megan said.

“There were times when I had more difficult moments, but there was always that one person who told you to keep going, and that one person turns into another person and it just keeps going.

“You come to realise that actually I could do something with this and then you end up getting to do what I get to do now.”

And what she does now is develop her game, with the aim of reaching the level she believes she can hit. That drive, she says, comes from everything the sport has given her over the years.

“I feel almost indebted to rugby. The sport as a whole has given me so much and given me so many opportunities.

“From playing alone, I’ve been able to go to so many different countries and just met so many different people, and I’ve had the opportunity to work abroad with coaching, too.

“I know the level I want to get to and how I want rugby to be played, which is exciting and unpredictable rugby.

“I know I’m nowhere near that level yet, but I feel like I owe it to the sport to work hard to be able to get to that level because rugby has given me so much.

“I’ve been part of the pathway for a while now, but I still feel like I’m at the beginning of my journey in terms of where I want to be and how I need to develop.

“I want to keep pushing the limit on my position and play hooker the way I want to play it, as well as adding in different elements to my game, so I can kick, I can run, I can sidestep and just expand my rugby.

“Everyone wants to be a part of the national team and be playing at that highest level, whether I can get there or not, my goal is to play rugby the way I know I can get to and people can see that from watching me.”

Giving back to the sport is something she also does in the form of coaching at Portobello Youth Rugby Academy.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Scottish Rugby (@scotlandteam)

“I love coaching,” Megan added. “Playing and coaching at the same time gives you a really unique perspective on the game.

“The boys I coach have a game on a Saturday and so do I, so when we come back into training and we can all ask each other how our games were and have a chat about that.

“They also have opportunities to see me play which is a massive thing because I don’t think I had that visibility growing up of being able to watch my rugby coach in person or on TV or online on YouTube.

“I coach in a way because of how I’ve been coached but they also help me see things in a different way because they’re maybe new to the sport or they have a different sporting background to mine.”