World Rugby has announced that former Scotland international, Donna Kennedy, is amongst five players spread across sevens and 15s will be inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame at the World Rugby Awards in Monaco on 24 November.
The contributions of Donna, alongside Emilee Cherry (Australia), DJ Forbes (New Zealand), Chris Laidlaw (New Zealand) and Sergio Parisse (Italy) to the game will be celebrated at the gala event.
The World Rugby Hall of Fame recognises those who have made an outstanding contribution to the game of rugby throughout their careers, while also demonstrating rugby’s character-building values of integrity, passion, solidarity, discipline and respect.
Scotland’s most-capped player, male or female, Donna Kennedy was synonymous with the country’s women’s national team for much of the first two decades of its existence.
Kennedy made her test debut in Scotland’s first-ever international, lining up in the second row and helping her country to a 10-0 victory against Ireland on Valentine’s Day in 1993. A year later she appeared in her first Women’s Rugby World Cup, on home soil, and she would go on to play at five editions of the showpiece tournament.
In 2004, Kennedy displayed her versatility as she moved out of the Scotland back row – where she had become a mainstay – to win four caps on the wing. That year she was also named World Rugby’s International Women’s Personality of the Year and became the world’s most-capped women’s player, overtaking England’s Gill Burns when she played her 74th test.
Kennedy would stretch that record before she hung up her boots at the end of Women’s Rugby World Cup 2010. By that time, the Biggar native – who played 95 of Scotland’s first 100 test matches – had amassed 115 caps, all from the start, as she became the first Scottish player to rack up a century of international appearances.
She would remain the world’s most-capped female player until England’s Rocky Clark surpassed her total in November 2016.
Following her playing career, Kennedy remained involved with the game as a coach with the Scottish Rugby Union and later took charge of English club Worcester before stepping down from that role in 2017.
The Donna Kennedy Cup was named in her honour in 2015 and ahead of the Guinness Women’s Six Nations 2024 she was one of three trailblazers of Scottish women’s rugby celebrated with a statue in Edinburgh.
In 2023, Kennedy co-founded the Scottish Thistle Rugby Clan with the key purpose being to support the past, present and future of the game within Scotland, holding their first event jointly the Wooden Spoons in April 2023 at Murrayfield.
On the announcement, Donna said: “It’s like the damehood of rugby isn’t it? Getting that email through to tell me the news, it was just like ‘wow!’. It feels so surreal but it’s such an honour.
“I feel like this recognition isn’t just about me, and I really mean that. It’s recognition of the journey I’ve been on with Scotland Women. I hold it up for everyone – players and coaches – it’s not just for me.”