Scotland ready for Murrayfield ‘landmark’ against depleted but relentless England

Saturday’s Women’s Six Nations hosts hope to end 28-game losing streak against the Red Roses in front of record crowd

Murrayfield usually looms over Scotland women’s home games. Its fortress walls arch over the team’s regular home at the Hive like a villain in a children’s cartoon. The two rugby stadiums are direct neighbours in Edinburgh but on Saturday Scotland are swapping one for the other and making history by hosting their first standalone match at the home of Scottish rugby against the old enemy England in the Women’s Six Nations.

Almost 30,000 tickets have been sold for the game, obliterating the current attendance record for a women’s rugby game in Scotland. That record stands at 7,774 and was set in the 2024 Six Nations when the team played the Red Roses at the Hive. It will not just be a record for rugby either: the expected crowd is the biggest for a standalone women’s sporting event in Scotland too. The captain Rachel Malcolm, who won her first cap for Scotland in 2016, never thought a standalone game would materialise.