PHILIP DOYLE says that he took the job as head coach of the Scotland Women’s team with one goal solely in mind. His focus is purely on reaching the World Cup in New Zealand in 2021, which would be the team’s first appearance at the tournament since 2010. Everything the team goes through from now on will be geared towards that aim.

Having not made the last World Cup in Ireland two years ago, Scotland must now go through a play-off competition against three other European countries next autumn, with Doyle expecting Spain, Italy and Ireland to provide the opposition based on current world rankings.

Scotland lost 29-24 to Spain in Madrid in January, then lost 7-28 at home to Italy and 5-22 at home to Ireland during the last Six Nations, giving an indication of just how big the challenge will be.

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The winner of the play-off will go directly to the World Cup and the second placed team will go into another repechage tournament against a team from Africa or Asia.

“The Six Nations is vitally important for our development, but it is all going down to those qualification games,” stated Doyle. “I have told the girls already that we don’t have to peak now but come next August and September we have to be at our best.

“I set the goals and I told the guys at Scottish Rugby that the Six Nations would be bedding in and experimental as part of our journey, and they accepted that,” added the Irishman, who took on the job in April and has had two training weekends with the squad so far ahead of a trip to South Africa at the end of this month, where the team will play two Test matches against the Springboks.

The side will also play two home Tests against Wales and Japan in November.

“There were 36 players in at the weekend, so my time has been spent getting to know the players, planning these two camps and getting ready for South Africa,” said Doyle “There’s been a lot of organisational work.It has been good stuff, but am I fully there yet? No, it’ll take a while.

“The professionalism in the way they [the players] act on and off the pitch is something we push,” he continued. “The understanding of their individual core skills is something that has been lacking in the past and is something that we are working with them now on.

“It is a lot of education. The girls were wilting by the end [of the camp last weekend] because of the sheer amount of information we are pushing into them – not too much so that they go system overload, but just the right amount so they improve.They are up for the challenge and they are soaking it all up.”

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Scottish Rugby doesn’t currently have any full-time professional women players, but last season they did have eight individuals on ‘2021 contracts’ with the stated aim of building towards the World Cup. These deals provide varying levels of ‘support’ depending on each player’s needs. A further four or five contracts are expected to be announced soon.

However, there is concern that while top players are being supported by the SRU, an increasing number have decided to commit to playing club rugby in England and France in order to expose themselves to a higher level of competition on a week-to-week basis.

The impression has previously been that this is something which is actively encouraged by Murrayfield as a necessary evil in order to raise standards at the top level, but Doyle insisted that on his watch he would much prefer to have all his players based full-time in this country.

“I would love to have the best players here, but we are working closely with the likes of Harlequins, Saracens and DMP Sharks building good relationships, and paramount is the health of the player,” he said. “We are working really closely with the clubs and monitoring the player well.

Myself, Alan McDonald (S&C coach) and Jamie Coffey (physio) have all been down to see them.We are already seeing the benefits of information flowing between experts.”

Doyle will also be assisted during the next year by SRU academy mentor Bryan Easson (who will oversee the backs and attack), former Scotland prop Alasdair Dickinson (scrum) and one other as yet unnamed coach.

“I wouldn’t be here is I didn’t think Scotland can improve,” he concluded. “I can see there are really good athletes there and with the education going in from a rugby perspective I really can’t see why Scotland can’t build a squad that can go places around that core of players.”