Scotland Women in Murrayfield switch as new sporting attendance record targeted

It will be the first time the national side have played a standalone international in front of spectators in the main stadium which has a capacity of 67,000. The match is scheduled for Saturday, April 18, with a 1:30pm kick-off.

Hive Stadium in Edinburgh has been the home to Scotland Women since 2021 and their fanbase has expanded in that time. In 2024 they attracted a capacity crowd of 7,774 against England, a record attendance for the team.

The move to the national stadium is being tied in with the 100th anniversary of Murrayfield which has been marked this year. There is also an introductory admission offer which will see early tickets made available at £15 for adults, £10 for under-18s and £5 for under-12s.

Rachel Malcolm, the Scotland captain, said the opportunity to play at Murrayfield could help inspire future generations.

“We are incredibly excited to play this match at Scottish Gas Murrayfield,” she said. “We have all dreamed that one day our fan base would grow to the point where we would have the opportunity to run out, cheered on by our supporters, on this iconic pitch.

“We always talk about leaving the shirt in a better place, and the fact that young girls playing in the National Youth Cup Finals can now look around and think, ‘One day, I want to run out here for Scotland Women,’ is so special. It shows how far we have come and how many ways we can inspire the next generation.

“There have been some incredible trailblazers before us, and right now it’s our turn to make moves and keep pushing things forward with Scottish Rugby.”

Scotland Women have played in the main Murrayfield bowl on two previous occasions. The first, in 2002, was as part of a double header with the men’s team when the women played Sweden and the men took on Fiji. The second occasion was in 2020 when Scotland played England behind closed doors in the Women’s Six Nations in a rescheduled game on a Monday afternoon after the initial fixture at Scotstoun had been postponed due to Storm Ciara.

Alex Williamson, Scottish Rugby’s chief executive, said: “This is such an exciting time for the growth of women’s rugby. With the Rugby World Cup on our doorstep, records are already being broken months in advance. We want to celebrate that momentum by elevating the Scotland Women international experience for both players and fans.

“To celebrate the women’s game in Scotland, and as part of the stadium’s 100th anniversary celebrations, we’re inviting rugby fans from all over the world to come and watch our national team play in what we hope will be the largest ever crowd for a Scottish women’s sporting event.”

The Scotland Women football team’s record attendance for a home game was set in 2019 when 18,555 were at Hampden to see them play Jamaica in their send-off game before the World Cup. But golf probably holds the overall attendance record for a women’s sporting event in Scotland. More than 90,000 attended the 2019 Solheim Cup at Gleneagles as Catriona Matthew captained Europe to victory over the USA. The biennial team contest is played over three days, so the average daily attendance was over 30,000.

Gemma Fay, Scottish Rugby’s head of women and girls’ strategy, added: “We launched our Women & Girls strategy in 2022. By 2024 we had already achieved our target of 7,000 fans when we played England in a sold-out Hive Stadium. Our next target had to be a new record crowd and that has to be in Scottish Gas Murrayfield.

“The growth in fans, combined with increase in girls and women participation to over 9,000, we know that now is the time to make the move with our women’s national team.

“We are extremely excited that moving forward we are able to provide fans and players alike the opportunity to experience match days in either Hive Stadium or Scottish Gas Murrayfield and of course, that first match in the main bowl had to be England in the Guinness Women’s Six Nations.”