History Teacher in Women’s Rugby World Cup

Dollar Academy History and Modern Studies teacher Gillian McCord is currently in Edmonton, Canada as member of Scotland’s World Cup team. She recently emailed the Rector with news of the team’s victories over Kazakhstan (32-17) and Spain (24-0), results which left them above England and France at third place in the overall table.

On Friday 8 September a tough contest against the current world champions New Zealand (the Silver Ferns) resulted in a 21-0 defeat and the narrow loss, through points difference, of a place in the semi-finals. The team are now playing for fifth place with a match against Ireland on Tuesday 12 September and then a final contest against either Australia or the USA.

Miss McCord, normally a prop, played in the second row for 73 minutes in the New Zealand match. Captain Paula Chambers describes the team’s match performance on the SRU website: “It was a tough second half and we held on extremely well. Their impact players then came on and delivered exactly what was required of them. However, we stuck to our task and came out with a respectable scoreline, being the only team in the tournament to prevent the world champions gaining a bonus point.”

Miss McCord joined the squad with a record of 14 internationals for Scotland, her first being against Sweden in 2004. A former pupil of Langholm Academy and a graduate of Edinburgh University, she has also played for the Scottish Universities team. She is currently a member of Watsonians RFC.

Miss McCord’s email mentions the unusually high temperatures of the tournament matches, visits to a local school to run coaching clinics and cross-cultural exchanges with the Samoan team who are sharing the same hotel.

During Miss McCord’s absence, Mrs Elaine Walls is helping to cover her lessons.