VODAFONE TO BECOME A PRINCIPAL PARTNER OF SCOTTISH RUGBY IN MULTI-YEAR DEAL

The partnership – which includes both senior teams as well as the Pathway system – sees Scottish Rugby join Vodafone’s established portfolio of rugby partners, alongside the Welsh Rugby Union and Irish Rugby Football Union.

As part of the deal, Vodafone will also become a Principal Partner of Scottish Rugby’s Women’s Pathway, supporting the growth of the women’s game in Scotland by helping to develop a clear talent pipeline, including Vodafone Regional Training Centres.

Scotland Women and the women’s pathway teams will gain full access to Vodafone PLAYER.Connect, the landmark mobile-first platform that helps female athletes to understand the impact their menstrual cycle has on performance, wellbeing and recovery.

The Vodafone PLAYER.Connect platform is already used by Vodafone’s partners including Wales Women, the Armed Forces Women’s Rugby Team, Celtic Challenge teams Brython Thunder and Gwalia Lightning and the women’s rugby teams at Edinburgh, Cardiff and Durham universities.

The partnership will also see Vodafone harness the power of its reliable, award-winning network* and connectivity solutions to bring fans across the nation closer to the action. This has previously included the trial of its revolutionary 5G Fan App with the Welsh Rugby Union at Principality Stadium. The app uses augmented reality (AR) technology and Vodafone’s superfast 5G to enhance the fan experience by allowing users to track player stats and explore live elements of the game by simply holding their phones up to the pitch. Vodafone will work with Scottish Rugby on similar solutions across both Hive Stadium and Scottish Gas Murrayfield.

Scotland Women will open the partnership by competing in the newly named Vodafone Series, which includes two Tests against Wales Women on Friday 6 September and Fijiana Women on Saturday 14 September. Both Wales and Fijiana are also sponsored by Vodafone, as part of its broader commitment to growing the women’s game.

Speaking about the partnership, Rob Winterschladen, Consumer Director, Vodafone UK said: “We’re really proud to be a new Principal Partner of Scottish Rugby’s Men’s and Women’s teams, who join our growing portfolio of partnerships with some of the UK’s most iconic teams and events.

As The Nation’s Network, we’re committed to connecting our customers to the people, businesses and places that matter to them, whether it’s using the power of our 5G to elevate the experience for rugby fans or our landmark Vodafone PLAYER.Connect platform to assist the players. We’re hugely excited to be working with the Scotland teams and to be further supporting the growth of women’s rugby in the UK.”

Chris Healy, Commercial Director, Scottish Rugby, said: “Welcoming Vodafone in as a Principal Partner and back of shirt partner for Scotland Men and Women is fantastic. They are an established global brand that we are delighted to work with, and we are excited to see the tangible benefits from the partnership. Having a partner who is as passionate as we are about developing our pathway and with the of field support of our players in the use of the Vodafone PLAYER.Connect app is amazing.

“Next week, we will all be supporting Scotland Women at Hive Stadium in the Vodafone Series, ahead of WXV 2, quickly followed by four Internationals at Scottish Gas Murrayfield for Scotland Men, so it is an exciting time for Vodafone to join us and I am looking forward to seeing how our partnership can grow over the coming years.”

Rachel Malcolm, Scotland Women’s Captain, said: “It’s a really exciting time for Scottish Rugby to be partnering with Vodafone. To have such an established brand supporting us is especially important at such a pivotal moment in our season.

In particular, their investment into the rugby pathways and regional centres is so important for the next generation of talent here in Scotland and we’re really excited to see how this helps our game progress and how we show up on the world stage next year.”

The Vodafone Series kicks off a busy Autumn of rugby for both teams, with Scotland Women travelling to South Africa to compete in the WXV 2 and Scotland Men playing four international tests at home in the 2024 Autumn Nations Series.

The partnership further reinforces Vodafone’s ongoing investment across the country, which has already seen 5G brought to major Scottish airports, universities and cities as well as 4G coverage successfully introduced across rural communities through the Shared Rural Network (SRN) programme. And with society relying more and more on connectivity, Vodafone has also committed to providing 5G Standalone (SA) technology to nearly 90% of Scotland by 2034 as part of its proposed merger with Three UK.