Scottish Rugby appoint Rosy Ryan to new Women and Girls’ role

This new role has been created and funded as part of Scottish Rugby’s Women and Girls’ strategy which launched in June 2022.

Rosy, who joined at the start of the year, will now oversee the development and implementation of programmes for women and girls to strengthen existing pathways throughout the community game. This will include programmes for players, coaches, match officials, volunteers and club leaders.

Hailing from Dumfries, Rosy has an impressive sporting background in football and cricket, both in a playing and professional capacity.

Rosy spent her school years playing and coaching at Queen of the South F.C before she turned to cricket at the age of 17.

In the years that followed, Rosy went on to play for Scotland at age-grade level in cricket and worked in America as a football coach.

Rosy’s passion for sports development came following the completion of her Sports Coaching and Development degree with the University of Cumbria where she honed her knowledge and expertise.

In 2016, Rosy joined Cricket Scotland as their Women and Girls’ Development Officer for the West of Scotland, before then serving as the Women and Girls’ Development Manager for three years.

During this time, she created the award-winning cricket programme, CricHIIT, a programme which combines high-intensity interval training with fundamental cricket skills. The programme went on to receive the International Cricket Council’s ‘Innovation of the Year’ award (2019).

“I am really excited to be joining Scottish Rugby at this pivotal time to take the lead on women and girls’ development”, said Rosy, who was named the Scottish Women in Sport ‘Role Model of the Year’ in 2018.

“I played rugby during my school days, but at the time there wasn’t a pathway for me to progress through. Fortunately, a lot of great work has gone in since then to develop routes for women and girls across the country, and I am looking forward to supporting clubs and schools at grassroots level to enhance these pathways and support their sustainability.

“There are so many ways in which people can be part of this great sport, so I’m also looking forward to supporting more women and girls engage through leadership roles and volunteering too.”

On Rosy’s appointment Gav Scott, Director of Rugby Development said: “I am thrilled to welcome Rosy to Scottish Rugby. Since the launch of our Women and Girls’ strategy last year, Scottish Rugby has implemented a range of new structures and programmes to enhance competitive game play opportunities for players of all ages and abilities, and deliver opportunities for women at the grassroots level access courses in match officiating and coaching.

“I am really looking forward to seeing how Rosy will take the strategy forward and apply her own passion and creativity for sport to this new role.”