Rachel McLachlan: Ten things you should know about the Scotland flanker

Rachel McLachlan is putting the skills she learnt in judo to good use on the rugby field.

Ten things you should know about Rachel McLachlan

1. Rachel McLachlan was born on 26 February 1999 in Edinburgh, Scotland. She stands at 5ft 4in (1.63m) and weighs 10st 10lb (68kg).

2. She plays for Allianz Premier 15s club Sale Sharks but she has previously competed for DMP and Stirling County.

3. McLachlan won her first Scotland cap in 2018 against Italy and she has also represented the country’s sevens team.

4. She was a part of the squad who secured qualification for the 2021 Rugby World Cup, which takes place in New Zealand in 2022.

5. McLachlan first played rugby at Glasgow Caledonian University at the age of 18 and within a year was playing Test rugby.

6. She is a former Scottish judo champion and Sainsbury’s School Games judo champion, but lost her love for the sport while at university.

7. She believes there’s a crossover between rugby and judo. She told Scottish Rugby: “They are really similar. A lot of what I did in judo I’ve brought into rugby. I think that’s part of the reason I have got to where I am and I am thankful I did judo for so long. It’s a great sport, as is rugby.”

8. McLachlan says defeats spur her on, telling Scotland’s YouTube channel: “I think off the back of defeats as well that’s one of the biggest drivers for me to improve. You look at your own game. You look at the team’s game. You work out where you want to go from there.

“That has been one of the biggest drivers of my career. The successes but the failures and how you come back from that.”

9. Outside of rugby, McLachlan is a physiotherapist.

10. She gets emotional singing the Scottish anthem, Flower of Scotland. She said to BBC Sport: “It’s just such a special thing to be out there singing the anthem, especially when you see your family and friends in the stand.

“There’s something about being Scottish, playing for Scotland, that is indescribable. It genuinely gives me shivers just talking about it. I know it sounds a bit cheesy, but this will be the thing that I do that I’ll be most proud of in my whole life. I already know that.”

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