Ex-Howe Harlequins prop Molly Poolman part of a record-breaking moment
Former Howe Harlequins tighthead prop Molly Poolman might have been party to the Scottish national rugby team’s heaviest hiding against England for seven years on Saturday but, by way of consolation, it’s also a game that will go down in the record books for positive reasons too.
That 84-7 thumping at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium in rugby’s 2026 Women’s Six Nations was England’s 29th victory on the bounce against their neighbours to the north and it saw them run up their biggest winning margin since an 80-0 demolition at London’s Twickenham Stadium back in March 2019.
It will go down as a breakthrough moment for Scottish rugby too, though, as the crowd of 30,498 there to see new head coach Sione Fukofuka’s team play their second game of the tournament is the biggest ever seen for a one-day women’s sporting event by a margin of almost 15,000, smashing the record of 18,555 set by the national women’s football team with a 3-2 friendly win hosting Jamaica at Glasgow’s Hampden Park in 2019.
It’s outdone cumulatively by the attendance of more than 90,000 attracted by golf’s 2019 Solheim Cup at Gleneagles but that was spread out over three days.
Perth-born Poolman, 21, played for just over a quarter of Saturday’s game, being brought on as a 57th-minute replacement for Elliann Clarke to earn her ninth cap, all from the bench.
Right-winger Rhona Lloyd scored the sixth-ranked hosts’ only try, converted by fly-half Helen Nelson, with 12 being touched down at the other end of the pitch by their top-ranked visitors, all followed by conversions.
Poolman also featured in round one of the tournament, taking over from Clarke on 71 minutes, as Scotland beat the Welsh 24-19 at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium in front of a crowd of 10,569 seven days prior.
Next up for the Scots is a trip to Parma to take on Italy this coming Saturday, with kick-off at 5.30pm.
They then play France at home at the Hive on Saturday, May 9, at 4.15pm, before wrapping proceedings up away to Ireland in Dublin on Sunday, May 17, at 2.30pm.
The Scots are targeting their first finish in the top half of the table since 2005, having ended up second from bottom last year on nine points from five fixtures under Fukofuka’s predecessor, Bryan Easson, and two rounds in, they’re fourth, on four points, with England top and France second, both on ten, and the Irish third, on five.