Evie Gallagher’s 2023/24 season started with success with Scotland at the WXV 2 tournament in South Africa and now she wants to end it in similar fashion by lifting silverware with Bristol Bears on Saturday.
It has been a long campaign for the 23-year-old back-rower who came through the ranks at Stirling County and with Edinburgh University, Scotland’s first game against South Africa was on October 13 in Cape Town and this weekend’s final is over eight months later with a Guinness Women’s Six Nations having been played in the middle of that.
However, Gallagher played pretty much every minute for Scotland during their WXV 2 title-winning campaign and their two-win Six Nations and has been one of the star performers for Bristol in Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR) down south.
The Bears finished third in the regular season table which meant that they had an away semi-final at three-times champions Saracens to contend with on June 9.
It was a game that swung one way then the other with Gallagher’s fellow Scotland cap Coreen Grant scoring an early try for the home side at the StoneX, but in the end Bristol came out on top 29-21.
A key moment was when Meryl Smith, another Scotland cap who came off the bench to set up Bristol winger Reneeqa Bonner for the clinching try after 76 minutes.
All afternoon the Bears back-row of Gallagher, Alisha Butchers and player of the match Rownita Marston-Mulhearn made a great impact to help the Bears into their inaugural final since this iteration of the English top flight began in 2017/18.
Gallagher said: “On the Monday after that match our head coach Dave Ward was asking us how it had felt to win such a big game. I said to Reedo [Amber Reed] that the win really just felt like the beginning for us and not the end.
“We have been building all season with making the play-offs having been the first goal, winning the semi-final the second goal, and once we had done that our focus was pretty quickly shifted onto the final.
"We want to try and achieve something special this weekend.
“Quite a lot of new players came into the squad last summer and in and around WXV time, me being one of them, and it feels like we have clicked more and more as things have gone along.
“That is the really exciting thing because we all enjoy playing with each other, there are so many good players here who push each other on and we still feel we can get better.”
They may just need their best performance of the campaign to date to defeat reigning champions Gloucester-Hartpury in the final on Saturday at Exeter's Sandy Park (3pm, live on TNT Sports and BBC iPlayer).
Gloucester topped the regular season standings with just one loss while they defeated Exeter Chiefs 50-19 in their semi-final.
They also beat Bristol twice, 12-0 and 24-19, in regular season play this term and it is shaping up to be a cracking final with international players almost everywhere you look.
“Our two league fixtures were close during the season and we know that we can compete with them, we have belief that if we get it right we can win at the weekend,” Gallagher said.
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“They are an exciting team, they have very good players and they are defending champions, but I believe in our attack and what we try to do when we have the ball and I’m looking forward to the challenge that is ahead.
“It would mean a lot for me to win the title in my first season at the club.”
Gallagher’s move to the Bears came about after Worcester Warriors folded.
“I loved my time at Worcester, so when we were out in South Africa for WXV 2 and I heard the news out of the blue that I didn’t have a club to go back to it was quite a low point,” Gallagher, one of Scotland’s full-time contracted players who has 27 caps under her belt, revealed.
“My house mate Lana Skeldon and others who were at WXV 2 were in the same boat so we helped each other through it. Thankfully myself and Lana ended up at the same club when we got back and Bristol could not have ended up being a better fit for me.
“Training and playing with a whole host of internationalists just pushes me on to keep getting better while we have excellent facilities here.
“Being here with Lana and fellow Scotland players Meryl Smith and Elliann Clarke has also made the move that bit easier and I am really enjoying my rugby just now.”
Since the tartan quartet moved to Bristol, their club team-mate Meg Varley has also been named in a wider Scotland squad for the first time before injury struck in the lead-up to the Six Nations.
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That injury will keep the centre/winger out of Saturday’s final with hooker Skeldon also set to miss out due to a neck/shoulder issue sustained at the end of the Six Nations.
Tighthead prop Clarke should be available and is just going through the final stages of concussion protocols while Gallagher and centre Smith are fit. The matchday 23s are set to be named on Friday late morning.
After this final Gallagher will get a well-deserved rest, but 2024/25 and beyond is already looking like a big spell in terms of women’s rugby.
WXV 2 for Scotland back in South Africa will lead into a condensed PWR campaign before the Six Nations and everything leading into the Rugby World Cup in England in August and September 2025.
“It is set to be a busy time, but a very exciting time,” Gallagher, who missed the 2021 World Cup played in 2022 in New Zealand due to a last-minute injury, stated.
“In terms of Scotland I think we are in a really good place after WXV 2 last year gave us a lot of confidence and belief. The Six Nations did not end how we wanted when we lost to Ireland, but we played some good rugby in the tournament our sights are firmly set on winning WXV 2 again now after the summer.”
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