By Jack Sanderson
The Scottish Rugby Union have recently revealed a multi-year partnership deal with mobile provider Vodafone. This partnership will see the phone company become a principal partner with Scottish Rugby and also become the back-of-shirt sponsor for both the men’s and women’s national teams.
The deal also sees Vodafone work with the u18s and u20s pathways, as well as becoming the principle partner of Scottish Rugby’s Women’s Pathway. Finally, the deal with Vodafone means that Scotland Rugby will be able to use a new online platform, called PLAYER CONNECT, which will help the female athletes and coaches to understand the impact of their menstrual cycle on their performance and wellbeing.
The multi-year deal will see Vodafone working alongside both the men’s and women’s national teams, as well as featuring on the back of the Tartan Army’s shirts for years to come. Evie Gallagher, Scotland and Bristol Bears number 8 was full of praise for the new partnership, and is looking forward to what lies ahead for Scottish rugby.
“It’s incredible to have such a big name sponsor, especially with it being joint with the men and the women, I think it’s really special for Scottish Rugby, and it just shows that the funding, investment, and backing that we have as a team and as a sport will hopefully allow us to grow and progress the way we have been progressing over the last few years.
“I think we want to keep building on what we’ve done in the past few seasons, our winning streak last year, our Six Nations campaign, which didn’t finish the way we’d hoped, but we’re pushing for that third placed finish and if we keep getting the investment and getting the resources we can keep building on those platforms.
“Us as individuals, if we’re supported and invested in it’s really important because then we can focus purely on what we want from ourselves as players and as individuals and can take that into Scottish Rugby.”
Alongside the incredible importance of Vodafone’s partnership with the Scottish Men’s and Women’s team, they have also joined forces with the under 18 and under 20 sides in the hope of developing the player pathway programmes in order to get more young people involved at a high level of rugby, which Edinburgh RFC and Scotland winger Darcy Graham thinks will help push the future of the men’s side to another level.
“It’s huge, as a player looking in, to have the backing from such a big company is really nice and it’s going all the way down to the under-18s and under-20s game too, so to have that backing all the way down to that age range too is great.
“It’s something we need to promote more and throw more money into. The real push is for the youth side of the game because we need more players coming through and playing a high level of rugby. It’s only going to benefit the men’s and women’s teams going forward”.
“We’re in a good spot just now, we just need to keep producing those players coming through. As a player, I want competition, I need competition. It’s easy to get relaxed, because you almost feel as if your spot is guaranteed when it’s not so that competition is massive, so to have the young boys coming through and pushing you and being on your tail is massive.
“I love having the young boys around. I can always remember coming in for my first Scotland camp and Tommy Seymour pulled me aside and told me if I ever needed anything to not be scared to ask him, which has stuck with me and I hope I can carry it on to any of the young boys that are coming through.”
One of the biggest things that has come from Vodafone’s partnership with the SRU is a newly-created platform called PLAYERCONNECT. PLAYERCONNECT is a first-of-its-kind performance dashboard that uses cutting edge mobile-first technology to allow athletes’ data to be viewed, analysed and acted upon by medical and coaching staff.
This software is a big step for the Scottish women’s side as it is giving them the opportunity to track and manage the effect that the menstrual cycle has on their bodies and the increased risk of injury that it can have on a female athlete’s body, which Evie Gallagher is incredibly excited to learn more about.
“I think the biggest thing for me personally is knowing that, with all the studies we’ve had around the menstrual cycle, is the effect it can have on your body and the increased risk of injury it can cause. I think a lot of the girls will agree that that’s probably the key thing we need to be aware of and that we need to track.
“The app allows us to do that and it allows coaches to take all of that into account, things like our strength and conditioning, our health, what we’re eating, refuelling and recovery and all those things. They’ve always been important but now that we know that that can be a factor, we can track all of those things and make sure the risk of injury is significantly lower.
“I think that’s incredibly important because no one wants to get injured, so I think it’s just such an incredible thing to have available to us.”
Vodafone have also agreed to become a principal partner with the Women’s player pathway, which will see them support the development of the player pathway programme and the expansion of its regional training centres, giving more young girls the opportunity to get involved with rugby and make it to a higher level than they are currently able to, which Evie Gallagher believes is a massive step for women’s rugby in Scotland.
“I would say depth is one of the most important things you could have in a squad. I came through the pathway myself and for it to now be consistently supported and have that funding, it’s incredibly important, and for young players coming through to have that platform to know they can train to the best of their abilities and to have the resources they need to become Scotland’s next athletes, and hopefully professional athletes, is massive.
“They need that funding to not have to stress about anything else, and with that platform in place, that depth can keep on renewing itself and Scottish rugby can continue going from strength to strength in the future.”
Vodafone have sponsored some big name sides in the rugby world in the past, including the 2021 British and Irish Lions, as well as currently sponsoring the Welsh men’s and women’s teams. With the news of Scotland joining the Vodafone ranks, Evie Gallagher created a rugby sevens side including herself and six other players from the sides that Vodafone have sponsored in the past.
“I’ll take Rhona Lloyd as my speedy friend, and I’ll take Alex Matthews to be my forward friend. I’d then take Emma Orr, because everything she does is just ridiculous, and whenever I’ve played sevens with her she was class, so I’ll definitely take Emma.
“I should probably then take a Welsh player because they’ll probably think I hate them if I don’t, so I’ll take Alex Callender because she’ll be good chat! Then I’ll go with Lisa Thomson. You’ve gotta take Thommo, it would be silly not to take her! And then I’ll finish with an Irish player to make it complete, and I’ll go with Aoife Wafer to get all the back rows in there!”
Darcy Graham, who plays for Edinburgh in the United Rugby Championship, and has made 39 appearances for the men’s national team since 2018, scoring 120 points in the process, also weighed in on the debate and made his choices on who he’d want alongside him in a sevens side.
“I’d have to start with Louis Rees-Zammit in there to start with, solely for the speed. I’d then have Duhan van der Merwe coming off the bench, he’s got a good two minutes in him, he’ll give you a good few runs and steam roll a good few boys!
“I’d then add Marcus Smith, because he’s got incredible footwork on him. I’d then take Lisa Thomson because she’s played rugby sevens at the Olympics and absolutely smashed it. I’d then go with Hamish Watson. I think he’d be unbelievable at sevens. He’s got an engine on him so he’d just truck away! I’d then finish with Robbie Henshaw from Ireland to round it off, because he’d be all over the pitch and would be a class player to finish off the side.”
The partnership with Vodafone comes at an exciting time for the SRU, with the Vodafone Series kicking off what will be an action-packed autumn for both the men’s and women’s sides, with the Scottish women travelling to South Africa to take part in the WXV 2, where they will face Italy, Japan, and Australia, in a build-up for 2025’s Women’s World Cup, whilst the men have four international tests at Murrayfield, playing Fiji, South Africa, Portugal and Australia over the month of November.
Vodafone is a new Principal Partner and back of shirt sponsor of Scottish Rugby’s Men’s and Women’s team. Vodafone is also a Principal Partner of Scottish Rugby’s Women’s Pathway, supporting the growth of the women’s game in Scotland.