McGhie ready to cap off remarkable maiden PWR season

With twinkle toes and a natural rhythm on the wing, it is perhaps not surprising that Francesca McGhie grew up dancing.

But the Leicester Tigers back soon found her calling for the rugby stage and is rather enjoying the spotlight in Allianz Premiership Women’s Rugby this season.

The scintillating 21-year-old has taken the league by storm since joining in the summer, making up a solid Scottish Tigers contingent alongside Leah Bartlett, Lisa Cockburn, Eva Donaldson and Elis Martin.

It has been a rapid rise for McGhie, who made her Women’s Six Nations debut last year, already making a name for herself in her maiden season in England.

“Sometimes it pops into my head how quickly this has all come around,” she said. “It’s all been quite a whirlwind.

“I loved dance when I started, but then I enjoyed being part of a team environment more.

“Dance is vulnerable and it’s individual but rugby was winning and losing with people around me, it was so much better for me.

“When I was 14, I said to my mum that I’m not so sure about dancing anymore after taking it so seriously at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

“She said she’d just seen a Facebook page and a girls’ rugby team, did I want to go and try so I thought ‘yeah, absolutely’ and the first session I just got to run around - I absolutely loved it.”

“I slowly transitioned out of dance and into rugby and I didn’t look back.”

McGhie played at previous club Watsonians in Edinburgh for four seasons and helped her side to the 2021/22 Scottish Women’s Premier League after joining from East Lothian and Border Girls Rugby.

She is not alone in her natural ability within the sport with a semi-professional Scotland U20-capped brother Kyle and rugby-mad parents.

In fact, her competitive family spirit is exactly what McGhie credits to her determination as she goes from strength to strength within the game.

"Everything turns into a competition at some point,” she said. “My mum loves it at the start but then she’ll be like, “that’s enough now” with my brother but we are both equally just as supportive of each other."

After joining with a brand of versatility, McGhie has never failed to look right at home in a back three alongside Red Rose Meg Jones, a mentor she has seamlessly learned from throughout Tigers’ debut campaign.

Having turned 21 this month, McGhie insists she has not assumed a leadership role within the group since her arrival, though her performances on the field suggest otherwise.

She said: “Meg [Jones] is incredible to be with on and off the pitch.

“She’s so interested in making everyone else around her better, she gives you so many different things to work on.

“To have her at 13 inside me is incredible there’s not that many people in the game better than her to play alongside.

“I’ve not played rugby for that long and it’s my first year in the PWR.

“I’m still learning how to be part of a pro team and I’m happy listening to the girls in the leadership team who have been playing for a lot longer than I have.

“That’s just as fulfilling to me as being in a bigger role so I’m enjoying being a part of the whole squad.”

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Musselburgh's McGhie’s standout highlight from her debut season in the league is Tigers’ first win against Sale in a thrilling 22-19 victory on the road in January.

McGhie has a chance to replicate their fortunes at home as Vicky Macqueen’s side search for their first win at Mattioli Woods Welford Road in the reverse Sharks fixture next weekend.

But there is another upcoming duel to contest first.

McGhie battled back from pneumonia after missing the two opening rounds of the Guinness Women’s Six Nations but, after a brace upon her Leicester Tigers return against Harlequins, she is hungry for even more from their upcoming bout with Bristol Bears this weekend.

She said: “We worked so hard and had such close games as well so to finally win that game against Sale was an experience you can’t put into words.

“Especially having had such close games where we were disappointed in the result, it was such a brilliant thing.

“We all went into the season thinking we’re going to compete and we've done that.”