Rianna Darroch on the return of the Women’s Central Programme

The programme, which was first established in August 2025 and is based at Oriam High Performance Centre, is led by national team coaches and provides a daily high-performance environment for contracted players who will represent Edinburgh Rugby and Glasgow Warriors in Celtic Challenge.

It is something scrum-half Darroch benefitted from as part of last year’s cohort and the 20-year-old, who represents Glasgow Warriors, is raring to be back with the group once more.

“It’s good to be back and to get into the swing of things with the group,” Rianna said. “We’ve got a good bit of time together before going into competition.

“I’ve not seen some of the girls since the last game of Six Nations, so it is good to be in and get in about it again.

“The Central Programme has helped some of the girls progress with our clubs and then with the national team, so it’s important.

“It’s a good block of prep for everyone. We’re getting used to playing with each other again and getting used to the playbook.”

One of the vital parts of the Central Programme, which will run until the end of July, Rianna says, is learning from those around you, whether it be fellow players, coaches or staff.

“Being in the high-performance environment, you learn so much from everyone. It doesn’t matter if someone is in a different position from you, you learn so much from their experiences,” the scrum-half said.

“It has had such an effect on my performance on the pitch and off the pitch as well, which is just so important.

“You learn how important it is to build those relationships and it comes from just branching out and getting to know more people and learning off them, trying to be a sponge and taking on as much information as possible.

“At club, you sometimes tend to stick with your own little group, but here it’s so important to mesh with everyone because everyone has got a different view and different output – whether it be on or off pitch stuff.”

Rianna arrived at this year’s Central Programme with plenty of experiences of her own that those alongside her can learn from.

She is now cap number 252, having made her Scotland Women debut during the recent Guinness Women’s Six Nations campaign, coming off the bench in the history-making match against England at Scottish Gas Murrayfield.

Her second appearance for Scotland Women, also from the bench, came at the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi in Parma against Italy.

Those opportunities are just some to pick from over the last year, she says, that has helped her develop and grow into the player who is now preparing ahead of the 2026/27 season.

“I’ve learned that stuff I didn’t think I could do I can do,” Rianna explained.

“Playing rugby at such a high level and playing in the Six Nations for the first time in front of more than 30,000 people at Murrayfield was a big change, but it’s just about proving to myself that the hard work is paying off, and I need to keep pushing.

“It was pretty surreal to make my debut. When Leia Brebner-Holden came off for the HIA, Ellen (Scotland Women team manager) pointed at me and I just pointed back at myself to make sure it was me she was looking at.

“Coming on in front of that many people was such a crazy experience but then I got the nod from Rach (Malcolm) and knew that I was good to go.

“I was straight in from the kick-off and just trying to focus on the job at hand, making sure my passing was accurate and hyping the girls up.

“When I saw Leia coming back down at the end of the tunnel, it was almost a sigh of relief but I also didn’t want to come off. I think I got like 30 minutes total, so for a debut it’s pretty good.”

The Central Programme marks the start of preparations for the 2026/27 season, which will see Rianna feature at Glasgow Warriors for her third season in the Celtic Challenge later in the year.

At club, she will be joined by nine new faces at Scotstoun, with several experienced players making the move to play domestic rugby in Scotland following stints in the PWR or in France.

“It will be so good for them to come in and help push us on,” Rianna added. “Having those girls come in will, hopefully, help us put up an even better fight.

“Even just in training it gives everyone that extra edge to sort of push each other on.”