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Lisa Thomson on Trailfinders, and trials and tribulations of 7s and XVs
By Gary Heatly
Over the years, Lisa Thomson has developed a great knack for hitting the ground running in any new rugby environment she has found herself in to quickly become a key player for the team or squad she is with at the time.
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And she certainly did that during the 2024/25 regular Premiership Women’s Rugby campaign with Trailfinders Women, her return to full-time XVs after a couple of years spent mainly with GB Sevens being a real success.
She played almost every game after WXV 2 until recently, was named in the Team of the Week numerous times and, at the weekend just gone, was crowned Trailfinders’ Coaches’ Player of the Season.
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“I really enjoyed my first season with Trailfinders,” Lisa, the 27-year-old Scotland international centre who has played for Lille Métropole Rugby Club Villeneuvois in France, Sale Sharks, and DMP Sharks amongst others before, said.
“Having been switching between sevens and XVs in recent years, I really wanted to put down roots and have a base leading into this big World Cup year and I wanted to get a good run of XVs games behind me.
“I have been able to do that with Trailfinders and it is a great club to be a part of and the squad really made me feel welcome.
“It really has been huge having one base and not living out of a suitcase over the last six months.
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“I love sevens, the World Series and my two Olympic appearances and I would not change any of that for the world, but I think, mentally more than anything else, flipping between the two styles of game can be difficult.
“It’s been a good move just to get down to Trailfinders and get settled in and only have to think about one thing. It’s just tiring, physically and mentally, getting across both sevens and XVs regularly no matter how much you love playing both.”
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Trailfinders finished seventh in the PWR regular season table with five wins from 16. They undoubtedly would have liked to have won more, but when they got things right they played an exciting brand of rugby, including in their 39-38 home win over Bristol Bears in round 14 at Trailfinders Sports Club.
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Thomson scored two of Trailfinders’ seven tries that day and kicked two conversions and she stated: “That Bristol game was one where we really got things right attacking-wise for a lot of the 80 minutes and really took it to them and showed what we can do.
“It went down to the wire, but we got over the line and that game has to be the attacking blueprint for the club going forward because we have some exciting talents and real pace.
“And for myself, that attacking piece was something I was keen to work on during the campaign.
“People probably know me for running hard and running straight as well as kicking and hopefully being defensively sound at 12, but I wanted to really add a few things to my game such as using soft hands a bit more, putting people into space more and just generally being a bigger attacking threat with more strings to my bow.
“I feel a better all-round player now after the league season and I feel it has left me in a good place heading into the next few weeks with Scotland and the period leading into the Six Nations is always an exciting time of year.
“The rugby has certainly been coming thick and fast since the Olympics in Paris last summer and then the WXV 2 tournament with Scotland in South Africa late last year, but ever since I have been 18 or 19 I have been used to that.
“I have learnt how to recover from training and games to get the best out of myself and now I just want to play my part with Scotland during the Six Nations so that we can set ourselves up for August and September’s World Cup in England as best as we possibly can.
“I am excited for the rest of the year.”
Hailing from the proud rugby town of Hawick in the Scottish Borders, Thomson played against Scotland men’s winger Darcy Graham growing up in school competitions.
Her rugby journey took her to Jed-Forest Minis, Langholm and Murrayfield Wanderers before starting out in the senior ranks at Melrose and going from there.
Making her Scotland debut aged 18 against England it was a baptism of fire for Thomson back in 2016, but one she feels set her up well for the future.
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“That match and the rest of the Six Nations that year was a big step up from what I was used to,” the 64-times capped former Scotland captain explained.
“In terms of the matches they were faster and more physical than I had been used to before, while mistakes were pounced upon and at training I tried to take a lot from what the more experienced players were doing.
“They just trained with such an intensity and a clarity around what they were doing and it was around that time that I started to learn more about diet and such like.
“It is quite amazing to think how women’s rugby has grown from then until now – it is almost unrecognisable really – and it is such a great year to be part of the game.”
The sport in general may be unrecognisable from 2016 and so too are Scotland.
After missing the 2017 Rugby World Cup off the back of missing 2014 too, they finally made it back to the showpiece event in New Zealand in 2022.
After that tournament, Scottish Rugby gave out the biggest number of professional contracts they ever had to female players and, slowly but surely, they have become a team to fear if, like Trailfinders, they get it right on their day.
Between April 2023 and March 2024 they won a record seven Tests on the spin, including the 2023 WXV 2 title in South Africa, and last September they made it to a record high fifth in the world.
They are currently seventh in the ranking and head into the upcoming Guinness Women’s Six Nations off the back of finishing runners-up to Australia at WXV 2 2024.
Scotland have won 12 of their last 16 Tests and a 34-strong squad is now in camp ahead of the Guinness Women’s Six Nations opener at home to Wales on March 22.
“As I said, this time of year is always exciting because as a Scotland group we get back together for the first time in a while and there are familiar faces, new faces and just a real buzz about things,” Thomson concluded.
“We said from last July that we are on a 14-month journey to the end of the World Cup, but for now we are just focusing on the Six Nations and March and April.
“After the Australia game we were left with a few thoughts of what might have been and we didn’t quite hit top form in WXV 2 for whatever reason.
“We now want to use the next few weeks to make sure we are back to our best to take on Wales at Hive Stadium because we always have good tussles with them.”
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